Fast lane for $25b harbour crossing
The plan for a new Waitematā Harbour Crossing, costing up to $25 billion, is being fast-tracked even before a new joint transport agreement between the Government and Auckland Council is inked.
The Government has unveiled five scenarios for an additional crossing over Waitematā Harbour – all would carry light rail from the city centre to the North Shore and beyond.
Construction on the harbour crossing will begin in 2029 – 11 years earlier than expected, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced on Thursday last week.
‘‘It’s time to convert the longawaited dream of a second harbour crossing into a reality,’’ Hipkins said.
In June, the Government will decide on a design from five ‘‘scenarios’’ for additional walking, cycling, road and light-rail links across the harbour.
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown hasn’t favoured either a new harbour crossing or the Government’s light-rail plan and had said the Integrated Transport Plan announced in December might ‘‘challenge’’ both projects. However, the Government said consultation with Aucklanders in recent months had been positive.
‘‘Thousands have had their say and overwhelmingly people want us to get on with an alternative connection. They want it to include light rail, they want it to include safe walking and cycling,’’ Michael Wood, the minister for both transport and Auckland, said. He described the light-rail plan and the harbour crossing as ‘‘incredibly important priorities for the government but actually, and more importantly, for the people of Auckland’’.
Aucklanders will be consulted during the next few months on designs in five scenarios, ranging from new, separate road and light rail tunnels, to a mix of tunnel and new bridge, or bridge-only addition, carrying walking, cycling light rail and road.
In December, Brown and Wood announced a plan under which the Government and the council would agree on a joinedup conversation on the projects the city needed, including how to incorporate a future relocation of the city’s port.
Brown initially said it would be ‘‘Auckland-led’’ but that wording was soon dropped.
Wood said the mayor had ‘‘quite rightly’’ said as part of the significant future investment, there was a need for good information and good analysis.
‘‘For example, one of the key issues for him would be the impact changes at Ports of Auckland would have on demand for these transport connections,’’ Wood said.
‘‘For this particular project, we have done that work and that analysis, which has revealed that a relatively small amount of traffic on the bridge is linked to Ports of Auckland – it’s the overwhelming growth we see on the North Shore,’’ he said.
During a break in a council meeting later last Thursday, Stuff asked Brown if he would comment. He said: ‘‘No.’’ His office directed Stuff to deputy mayor Desley Simpson, who said of the crossing unveiling: ‘‘I would have done it in six months’ time not six years.’’
Simpson said she was particularly pleased the Government had listened to the council when it said: ‘‘Stop telling us what we should have.’’
‘‘They have given us five options. I think they have got that message ... I think Aucklanders will have their say.’’