Garth Falconer: The ongoing drama across the harbour

OPINION

In the late flurry of election promises, the former Labour Government backed Waka Kotahi’s proposal to spend a massive $45 billion on a second Waitematā Harbour crossing in the form of multiple tunnels. This came against the advice of Treasury and the Infrastructure Commission, who stated via an Official Information Act (OIA) request that the decision was ill-advised, premature and lacked rigor. The OIA also noted that this option was by far the most expensive of all the proposals.

Now that we will soon have a new government in power, will it opt for the same behemoth of a harbour crossing? Or will it see that there is a clear conflict of interest in accepting Waka Kotahi’s proposal, given that it is the Government-owned body responsible for providing our highways and bridges? With a big complex decision such as the Waitematā Harbour Crossing, this seems like asking a function organiser whether it wants to cater for modest wedding or a big banquet. My opinion is of course it is going to want the colossus, with the accompanying uplift of bonuses in revenue, job security and power.

Waka Kotahi has not had the process or the options exhaustively researched, nor has the proposal been independently peer-reviewed. It even paid for a full-page advertorial “opinion piece” in the Herald by its project manager promoting the project’s “critical unlocking” of the city just prior to the rushed announcement.

Surprisingly, there has been little exposure or criticism of this situation given what’s at stake.

To gauge the enormity of the proposed spend, $45 billion buys you all of the following:

• $3b for the 80km motorway from Wellsford to Whangarei
• $12b for 6 x regional state of the art hospitals
• $16b to wipe off all student debt
• $2b to nationally clean up wastewater plant discharge into freshwater
• $9b to wipe out Auckland’s half of the total local government debt
• $3b for 300 town/suburban libraries with a play space and park

Against repaying debt from Covid and the cyclone recovery, this spend raises serious questions around what we can afford, what our priorities are, and how we go about making decisions.

The nation and future generations will be faced with the burden of this huge debt if it goes ahead. And we should know from experience that the final cost of the second harbour crossing will be significantly higher than what is being estimated now (look at the overspend on the City Rail Link). It’s going to take some 25 years to build after all.

Don’t get me wrong, an additional Waitematā crossing is a good idea and one that should be well planned, to augment the existing Auckland Harbour Bridge and the upper harbour alternative route and to open up the full arsenal of different modes of moving around in a fully connected city.

But, given what I believe to be sham consultation and stonewalling of other alternatives, Waka Kotahi needs to be challenged to prove that its multiple tunnel solution is better than simply constructing another bridge next to the existing one.

On those rare days the bridge is closed for a short period of time, there are work from home options, Garth Falconer says. Photo / Alex Burton

Waka Kotahi has been making quite a thing about severe weather and closures on the bridge recently, but actually these closures are few and far between. On those rare days the bridge is closed for a short period of time, there are work-from-home options for some people and we know Auckland is transitioning into a polycentric urban form that is less reliant on one central city business hub - a conception that inevitably struggles against the naturally convoluted landscape setting of water and hilly land.

The cost of a second bridge would be about in the vicinity of $1.5b to $2b (based on the same specs as the Genova San Giorgio bridge in Genoa that was built in 2020). Unlike the multiple tunnels option, this would be simple, doable, relatively affordable and one that minimises greenhouse gas emissions. The concrete platform could be built three or four metres below the existing truss bridge to provide additional shelter from the prevailing southwesterlies. And it could be built easily within 10 years.

It’s not too late to have a fresh look at this pivotal single piece of infrastructure that will not only define the city, but also how we conceive of nationally important projects.

Garth Falconer is one of New Zealand’s foremost urban designers. He is the director of Reset Urban Design, and author of Living in Paradox ; a history of urban design across kainga, towns and cities in New Zealand (2015) and Harry Turbott: New Zealand’s first landscape architect (2020) and former design lead of the SkyPath project.