EWL cost per kilometre ‘world-beating’

A proposed Auckland motorway could rival the most expensive roading project in the world, Infrastructure New Zealand says.

The group, which represents infrastructure companies such as Kiwirail and Transpower, has calculated Auckland’s proposed 5.5km East-west Link (EWL) would cost an estimated $327 million per-kilometre, equalling the 40km Sochi to Krasnaya Polyana road in Russia.

Constructed for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi the US$9.4B (NZ$13B) Sochi to Krasnaya Polyana motorway and railway project connected the coastal Winter Games site to alpine sporting venues and was touted as the most expensive road infrastructure project in history.

The project’s cost drew scrutiny from various media outlets, with Esquire Russia calculating for the same money about 30cm of foie gras could have sealed the road in place of asphalt.

In comparison, the $1.8b EWL project has been identified by the Government as a road of national significance and would connect State Highway 1 at Sylvia Park to State Highway 20 at Onehunga, with the aim of reduced network congestion and improved flow of freight between the two industrial hubs.

Infrastructure New Zealand policy director Hamish Glenn said while its group supported the EWL, the cost of the project was a significant issue.

For the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) to be granted

‘‘It was chosen after careful consideration of the long-term benefits’’

consent under the Resource Management Act (RMA), ‘‘so many little bits and pieces’’ of the project had to be altered, Glenn said.

’’It has to be low enough so that it doesn’t affect locals, it has to be wide enough so that it avoids this group and shallow enough so that it avoids that group,’’ Glenn said.

In order to get past all these objections NZTA had now designed a project ‘‘which is of world-beating cost’’, he said.

NZTA system design manager Brett Gliddon said the current iteration of the project was developed and refined based on feedback and consultation from the community stakeholders.

‘‘It was chosen after careful consideration of the long-term benefits,’’ Gliddon said.

NZTA economist John Williamson said no cost-benefit analysis was to be conducted by the agency on the EWL. and other

The EWL cost per kilometre is estimated to be as expensive as Russia’s Sochi to Krasnaya Polyana road, said to be the world’s most expensive per kilometre.