Eastern highway could cost $1b

Auckland City Mayor John Banks says the eastern highway will cost upwards of $1 billion, not the $460 million previously announced.

He has also raised the possibility of bringing back tolls on the Auckland Harbour Bridge to help to pay for a new harbour crossing.

Mr Banks said the $460 million highway costing released last week could double to pay the environmental costs and buy homes in the path of the six-lane highway. Much of the extra cost would come if tunnelling was adopted to protect Hobson Bay, Orakei Basin and Purewa Creek. Tunnelling options were not included in last week's study.

Mr Banks said Auckland motorists would have to pay tolls on the harbour bridge if they wanted a second crossing. The tolls would not come in until a new crossing was built in the next 15 to 20 years. Tolls were abandoned in 1984.

He is pushing for a $2 billion tunnel at Mechanics Bay linking the eastern highway with the Northern Motorway at Esmonde Rd. Only the private sector could fund such a big project and only if there were tolls on the harbour bridge, he said.

"The builders and operators in Sydney would not have built, owned and tolled the Sydney under-harbour crossing [costing $2 billion] if there was no toll on the Sydney Harbour Bridge because the economic viability would just not have been there."

Mr Banks agreed that Auckland Harbour Bridge tolls and an under-harbour crossing flew in the face of Government philosophy of allowing toll roads only where another free route existed.

But he said that was academic to a long-term debate about the realities of funding a second harbour crossing.

Feature: Getting Auckland moving

Related links