Interest sought in light rail Auckland harbour crossing
An Auckland councillor is heralding the Government’s moving ahead with a second Auckland harbour crossing as the ‘‘catalyst’’ for light rail over to the North Shore.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency announced on Thursday it was looking for registrations of interest to work on the planning for the crossing.
Auckland Council’s planning committee chair and North Shore councillor Chris Darby said the announcement confirmed light rail across the Waitematā was a ‘‘priority connection’’.
Waka Kotahi general manager of transport services Brett Gliddon said this work was an ‘‘incredibly important part’’ of shaping the city in the right way for future generations.
‘‘It will complete a strategic walking and cycling link adding to the existing rapid transit network and providing more resilience to the roading network,’’ Gliddon said.
A successful partnership between Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency, Auckland Transport and Auckland Council paved the way for this phase of work, Waka Kotahi said.
The investigations would look at a range of options and recommend a preferred way forward for all transport modes – walking and cycling, rapid transit and road. This would also include the form, function, route and timing of future cross-harbour connections, the transport agency said.
Transport officials have signalled they want a $5 billion rail tunnel under the Auckland harbour a decade before any additional road link.
Auckland mayor Phil Goff said the new harbour connection would be a transformative project.
‘‘Just as the Harbour Bridge transformed our city when it was built in the middle of last century, this project will influence how Auckland evolves for generations to come,’’ Goff said.
Finding industry professionals with the ‘‘right mix of skills, expertise and experience’’ was essential, as this would be one of the ‘‘largest and most complex infrastructure projects ever undertaken’’ in Aotearoa, he said.
The tender and procurement process was coordinated with the $14b Auckland Light Rail (ALR) project to allow industry professionals to plan their resources for the pipeline of infrastructure work across Auckland.
Darby said light rail needed to be viewed in a ‘‘city-wide context’’ and a tunnel through the city centre enabled a seamless connection across the harbour.
‘‘And that context includes expansion of that into a network, which comes to the North Shore and goes Northwest.’’
‘‘This can become our new way of moving across our city, connecting us to friends, jobs, education and great places.’’
ALR Group project director Tommy Parker said this was a ‘‘mega-project’’ the likes of which had never been seen before in New Zealand.
‘‘We have put the call out to a range of local and international firms to bring us their real skills and experience for how light rail will work best here,’’ Parker said.
Light rail will run in a tunnel from Wynyard Quarter to Mt Roskill, which comes to the surface and runs alongside the SH20 motorway to the airport and will form the spine of a new rapid transit network for the whole city.
This followed the Government’s announcement in January to bring forward planning of the Waitematā Connections project to ensure a ‘‘fully integrated transport network’’ for Auckland.
North Shore councillor Richard Hills said planning, design and construction for the next harbour crossing had been moved forward almost 15 years from where it was originally proposed in 2016.
‘‘We’ve continued to push it forward from its original completion date.’’
Planning work would start later this year and a preferred way forward would be determined in late 2023, Waka Kotahi said.
Gildon said the project was needed to ‘‘unlock access’’ to growing community, residential and employment hubs, whilst considering urban regeneration opportunities.
‘‘The long-term solutions are likely to require significant investment and involve complex, large-scale construction, anticipated to take more than 15 years of design and construction work.’’