Project Auckland: New roads great, but long overdue

Auckland's Waterview Connection is nearly complete. Photo / Nick Reed

Waterview's wonderful motorway connection is exciting but more catch-up is needed, writes Liam Dann

The Waterview Connection is now just weeks away from completion. As the landscaping gets underway, bringing to an end near six years and $1.4 billion of work, it makes a marvellous sight.

If the concrete splendour of the pillars and motorways weren't enough, there is the tunnel, the tower, bridges and cycleways, parks, even a BMX track and skate park.

For locals, like me, there is a lot to like.

It's also a vital piece of Auckland's roading puzzle -- linking Mangere and the south with the northwest and providing an alternative motorway route to and from the CBD.

So there is good cause for celebration and it has been a tremendous effort to get the construction done on time.

But those celebrations should be tempered by the fact that the project has been on the Auckland City planners' books for decades.

The first consultation about it began in 2000 but the route once known as the Western corridor has been identified as crucial for Auckland growth since the 1960s.

So, as welcome as the completion will be, it doesn't represent a great leap forward.

It represents the completion of work that should have been done last century. It is Auckland playing catch-up after years of under-investment in infrastructure.

Similarly, excitement that the City Rail Link is finally underway is tempered somewhat when you consider it was first mooted in 1923 at a cost of $440,000.

It was on the cards again in the 1960s, when Auckland Mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson pushed for an underground rail loop which became known as "Robbie's Rapid Rail".

Those plans were scrapped by central government.

Frankly getting anything done in this city has been a nightmare for most of its history.

The tension between Auckland, as New Zealand's commercial centre, and Wellington as its political power base has always been present. But that deadlock appears to be breaking.

Perhaps that is because the imbalance (in Auckland's favour) has become so great under John Key -- who went as far as to suggest that Wellington was dying in 2013 (although he later tempered those remarks).

Regardless, Auckland has surged ahead. Its population has exploded. It surpassed 1.5 million in the year ended June 2014, and is projected to reach 2 million by 2033.

According to Statistics NZ, by 2028 Auckland will be home to 37 per cent of New Zealand's population, compared with 34 per cent in 2013. By 2043, the population of Auckland could make up 40 per cent of New Zealand's population.

If nothing else, the powers-that-be in Wellington can do the maths. You can't win an election without dominating Auckland.

So we have seen progress on that front.

The Super City has largely unified the Auckland lobby. The arrival of a centrist mayor in Phil Goff also holds promise. He is local and brings a wealth of central government insight.

Goff hasn't wasted time throwing some fresh ideas on the table for funding future infrastructure projects.

He's suggested a tourist bed tax (or technically a rates levy) and is in favour of a regional fuel tax.

The reaction has inevitably been mixed. New Zealanders don't like new taxes and they don't like tolls.

But then we don't like government debt or deficits either.

Something has to give. A compromise has to be brokered.

As a motorway commuter, the regional fuel tax appeals. A few cents a litre on the weekly fuel bill is quickly forgotten in the ups and downs of the petrol pump price fluctuations.

If it is to be done, let's do it now while petrol is cheap. Here's hoping our new Prime Minister can see the logic.

Tolls are also a logical option -- especially now electronic payment systems have removed the logistics of collecting the revenue.

They are common place internationally and it seems crazy that the new tunnel will open untolled. Tolls need not be excessive to gather substantive revenue over time.

They also have the advantage of allowing the use of economics to regulate the use of of roads and they make public-private partnerships more logical.

The problem with building infrastructure is not unique to New Zealand.

America's roads and bridges are in poor shape and Donald Trump has made much of the need for federal government investment. But he too will face political problems at a local level.

We can look enviously at the mega projects that China and other Asian nations build in record time but capitalist democracies require hard yards to been done to reach political consensus and they require innovative funding solutions. Auckland will need to keep working on both issues.

We still need to fully fund that rail link. We will need a second harbour crossing.

We should celebrate the opening at Waterview but there still much work to be done.