"I am a firm believer in the City Rail Link as it will really raise the profile of Auckland as a world-class city and serve the needs of the people. Auckland is the gateway to the rest of New Zealand. We need to be a truly world class city for the people of Auckland and the country.
"I think Government has got it right, but am looking forward to when I can actually ride on the City Rail Link - although I am not sure how old I'll be when that occurs."
O'Halloran would also like to see a dedicated transit system from the Auckland CBD to the airport: "That would be fantastic".
In the background he sees faint signs of some old-school thinking here and there. "It is fair to say that there are some people who want to hold on to the legacy around some of the original organisations [former city councils]," he says. "But in general there is some good leadership, and we are proud to be a part of that."
When it comes to the balance between road and rail - and the best solutions to keep the city moving - O'Halloran says it's no secret we have an incomplete road network.
"I guess the biggest constraint in achieving all that is funding," he says. "We need to complete that road network as soon as possible. And there are some projects underway, Waterview is one of them. But everyone needs to understand that we need to have choice around which mode of travel we want to use.
"So it is not just about the black tarmac, but about understanding where public transport comes through in terms of a mode of transport people can use.
"At the moment there are some good acceleration projects that have been announced by Government, particularly on the motorway corridor to the north of the city - but there are some constraints around the motorway system. To the south we need to improve capacity to unlock the motorway to deliver a ring road.
"We are never going to build our way out of traffic congestion. You can build lanes and lanes and lanes for vehicles, but there will always be a demand for more.
"So there needs to be another view around balancing people's expectations to travel from A to B. The bus rapid transit system on the North Shore has been a great success."
With regard to freight on the roads, O'Halloran wants to see dedicated freight lanes on the country's motorways.
According to a report by consultancy firm Booz Allen Hamilton in 2005, traffic congestion cost the transport industry in New Zealand $1 billion a year (70 per cent of that was lost in Auckland).
"Freight lanes are used overseas," he says. "They are like bus lanes. But to put those in place would mean a lot of changes to the road network. There needs to be a realistic view on helping to facilitate freight movements."
O'Halloran has concerns about the future of cruise tourism in Auckland, saying the port at the bottom of Queen St needs to be expanded and improved.
"We need to recognise that it needs improving if we are going to continue to attract tourists," he says.
"We need to balance that with how we treat the harbour from an environmental perspective - it would be great to have something in place to help drive the economy."
Pushing forward
Aecom NZ's Mike O'Halloran says it has taken a long time for city planners to fully understand the needs of Auckland, and of New Zealand, when it comes to transport infrastructure.
"But have we been moving fast enough? I don't think we have moved as fast as we have been allowed to move," he says.
Overall though, he says the city is going in the right direction, even though the speed of change and decision-making has been slower than hoped.
"There are some really good signs from the Government that it really wants to get things going," he says.
"I think a lot of professionals within the organisations involved have accepted that we are all in this together.
"That is a good sign.
"In Auckland we had so many different local authorities all thinking differently, but with one council we are now all going in one direction.
"There is definitely a one-network approach philosophy that has come through in the last year or so. I have noticed it working as a professional in the industry.
"I think the leaders in this area have done a reasonably good job to date."
