The Government will announce its preferred option for a proposed second crossing over Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour by mid-year, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says.
But as the “single biggest infrastructure project New Zealand’s ever built”, he stressed whatever decision will require bipartisan support to give certainty over the city’s transport future.
Discussions around the need for a second crossing have reignited after NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) released two June 2025 reports relating to the current bridge’s state of wear.
Documents reveal many areas of the bridge are vulnerable and increasingly fraying under use, with annual maintenance and repair costs now surpassing $25 million.
Appearing on Ryan Bridge TODAY, Bishop said Auckland would ultimately need to advance plans for an additional crossing, with the 67-year-old bridge “showing its age”.
“That’s what the Government’s working hard on at the moment,” he said.
“We’re planning on making a decision mid this year, so the next few months, in terms of the options for basically a bridge versus a tunnel.“
Once finalised, the decision will go to the NZTA board before landing in Cabinet for approval.
Bishop said “a considerable amount of work” would then be needed around funding the crossing, and expressed his desire to reach an agreement with parties across the aisle.
“I don’t want to make a decision that ... the Labour Party doesn’t support,” he said.
“We will want to take a bipartisan approach to it and act in the national interest, because what’s important is that the public have certainty around exactly what we’re doing for the future.”
While Bishop acknowledged Labour’s concerns that some projects - like those in the Government’s Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme - have been announced without funding, he said the Government was trying to create a “long-term pipeline” that would last through changes in government.
“Arguably one of the challenges with New Zealand infrastructure over the last 10 to 20 years is that politicians have made a series of promises on both sides of the aisle, may I say ... but the money’s not actually there for them,” he said.
“What we’re trying to do is be really transparent and upfront around what’s funded and what isn’t, and get that pipeline going out into the future.”
Bishop said building a second crossing will be expensive whether it’s a bridge or tunnel, so planning and funding options - through a toll or otherwise - would need to be worked through in good faith.
“We’ve got construction costs going up, we’ve got revenue declining, and we’ve got existing funding constraints.
“So I’m just being really upfront with the public about the fact that there’s not enough money in the system to do everything that people want to do.”
The Herald asked Labour whether any of its MPs had been involved in discussions with NZTA on the proposal.
Shadow Transport Minister Tangi Utikere confirmed he and Labour’s Auckland spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni had met officials on a number of transport-related issues, but said questions regarding plans for the harbour bridge remain unanswered.
“We don’t know how improvements to the bridge or a second harbour crossing will be funded or what the trade-offs will be,” Utikere said.
“At the time of the briefing, no preferred option for a second harbour crossing was identified by officials.
“If Chris Bishop was genuine about ensuring projects are enduring, he would be discussing key factors with us in advance of any announcement.”
NZTA’s reports warn of the current bridge’s ageing infrastructure as key components reach their capacity and design life’s end.
Keeping it operational will require increasingly complex and costly maintenance, with more closures, truck limits and other disruptions potentially on the cards in the near-future.
John Tookey, a professor in construction management at AUT, told Ryan Bridge TODAY that while the immediate risk of the current bridge failing wasn’t high, NZTA’s reports highlight “simply, the fact that the infrastructure needs to be supplemented [or] replaced”.
“We’ve been saying it for 30 years,” Tookey said, adding that the reports drew attention to the bridge’s previously acknowledged weaknesses.
“The structural limit associated with the piers has been exceeded, there are massive safety margins associated with any structural solution of several times over.
“So again, immediate problem - no - but there’s only so much kicking this can down the road we can realistically do.”
NZTA completed land- and sea-based geotechnical investigations in the Waitematā Harbour at the end of last year to help inform their decision on the proposed crossing’s route and method.
More than 130 boreholes were drilled, with the harbour’s topography mapped and soil and groundwater samples collected to better understand its ground conditions.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has long advocated for the crossing to be built as a bridge over Meola Reef, a partially submerged rocky lava flow extending into the water from Pt Chevalier, arguing doing so would be cheaper and more logical than other routes being considered by NZTA.
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