Dialogue: Give us tools to finish the job

By MICHAEL BARNETT and ALASDAIR THOMPSON*

It has taken Auckland more than 20 years to build 60 per cent of a motorway network regarded as the minimum needed to meet its growth up to the 1980s.

Over this time, virtually nothing has been done to provide the infrastructure needed to support efficient city-wide passenger services, whether bus- or rail-based.

We have ended up with a Third World transport network doing its best to support a First World economy. Auckland's incomplete, stressed network is creating uncertainty, adding millions of dollars to the cost of doing business. What is needed immediately is a strong statement of intent from mayoral and Government "champions" that the existing structure will be fixed.

First, the region's long-planned motorway and arterial road network needs to be completed by 2006.

Second, sensible public transport improvements need to be integrated into the corridor projects, such as extending the North Shore busway project into the eastern and western corridors.

Third, a demand for action must be backed with a timetable that doesn't stretch the construction work over the next 10 to 15 years and halve the life of any investment that businesses might be considering in Auckland.

The business community is not wedded to motorways and arterial roads as the sole solution to Auckland's transport crisis, but is looking for a far-sighted, integrated solution involving public and private options. Its objective is to see the best use made of corridors already designated for motorways and arterial roads, with provision for busways and, where appropriate, rail-based options.

Technically, the corridor network - including options for a proper regional bus service - can be finished in five years.

Surveys by the Automobile Association and others confirm that over 80 per cent of Aucklanders want the corridor network completed in a way that also enables the option of effective public transport. But this is not what we are getting.

Auckland City planning commissioners are hearing submissions to allow Transit New Zealand to build a section of motorway from Hillsborough Rd to Richardson Rd. This section is one of three needed to complete the western corridor bypass route proposed since the 1970s.

The rate of progress reinforces Auckland as the "City of Snails." Seventeen organisations are involved, and though rated as high priority by both the Auckland Regional Council Land Transport Strategy and Transit New Zealand's Auckland State Highway Strategy, the project is still at the first hearing stage.

There is no clarity on whether it will include provision for busways and/or rail options.

Completion of the western corridor is scheduled for 2010 if planning, funding, appeals and construction processes "go to plan." This, too, is far from assured. It has taken more than 10 years to plan a "clip on" bus lane for the Southern Motorway from the North Shore to Auckland's CBD, and nearly as long to get the Grafton interchange section under way.

The funding process is another constraint to progress. Approvals are bit by bit, contested against projects across New Zealand.

An obvious solution is to draw up a network completion programme which includes bus and cycleways, that undergrounds sensitive sections such as Avondale's link in the western corridor, and is then funded.

Similarly, an iron-clad case exists for better resourcing of the Environment Court, to reduce the time that projects wait for hearings and eliminate needless relitigation. There is also a strong case to provide a premium to compensation rates for property owners asked to relocate.

Instead, what we are having to put up with are endless planning negotiations in which even the smallest of projects become captured by each organisation's particular priorities. It's a disgrace.



Continuing the status quo will severely limit Auckland's capacity to help fast-track New Zealand back into the top league of the OECD table. Like Auckland, other Pacific cities began building integrated transport solutions in the mid-1960s and have sped past us while we are stalled in a cul-de-sac. We want a champion within the governing structure to stand up and put their leadership on the line to provide Auckland with a First World transport infrastructure no later than 2006.

* Michael Barnett is chief executive of the Auckland Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Alasdair Thompson is chief executive of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern).