Geoff Vazey: Give us the eastern highway or you'll see Auckland choke

COMMENT

Auckland was founded on its Waitemata port and, with that thriving facility right at its heart, has grown to become New Zealand's largest and most vibrant city.

More than 173,000 local jobs are supported by business activity related directly or indirectly to Auckland's international trade. This activity pumps more than $11 billion a year into the region and accounts for a third of the regional economy.

Aucklanders' livelihoods depend on the continued robustness of their international port. That robustness, in turn, depends to a very large degree on the smooth flow of containers.

The eastern highway is vital for achieving that smooth flow and is an essential part of Auckland's strategic roading network - which needs to be completed urgently.

Auckland's freight efficiency has plummeted 40 per cent over the past 10 years, according to figures released at the Freight Summit Conference in February. This is largely thanks to a lack of action on transport infrastructure. The region is in grave danger of suffering further economic decline if key infrastructure plans are not implemented as a matter of priority.

New Zealand's competitiveness in world markets depends on having the best-possible container-freight logistics chain. That's because increasingly these days, products do not compete - supply chains do. Products can be copied, and competitiveness is better assured by the creation of a supply chain that gets products from the factory to the shop-shelf in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

A region or entire country becomes less competitive when it does not spend on necessary freight-transport infrastructure.

The eastern highway is an essential part of Auckland's strategic roading network because many of the region's biggest importers, exporters, retailers and distribution centres are located out east and they badly need a direct route to the port. These businesses are some of the greatest contributors to Auckland's economic vitality.

Road transporters inform us that containers are trucked to and from the east on an indirect route via the Southern Motorway, or a more direct route via suburban arterial roads. Neither of these routes is efficient and, on top of that, the use of the suburban arterials is unpopular with local residents.

It is estimated that 33,000 container trucks a year travel between the port and the eastern area, which includes Pakuranga, the eastern suburbs and East Tamaki. Well over half these container trucks take an eastern route, rather than the Southern Motorway. Volumes will increase as the economic vitality of the east grows.

The eastern highway will be much more than just a route to the east. It will provide an alternative route to and from Auckland's teeming industrial south and will help ease pressure on the over-burdened Southern Motorway.

The East Tamaki area, in particular, is so important that Ports of Auckland has established an inland port there at considerable cost to improve the container-freight logistics.

The inland port provides importers and exporters with a shuttle service to and from the port. This service is helping to achieve smoother container flows by allowing the trucking of containers outside peak commuter hours - at night and on weekends.

Container trucking outside the normal hours of 7am to 7pm weekdays has increased 60 per cent over the past three years, and is now an accepted business practice. This growth includes the proportion of containers trucked after hours and an increase in container volumes.

For the benefit of all Aucklanders, East Tamaki businesses need a transport infrastructure that will enable them to grow. That means a direct route to the port.

The Automobile Association has said that if nothing is done by 2021 it will take an hour and a half to drive from East Tamaki to the port. An eastern highway will cut that to 30 minutes.

We have already seen the benefits of roading improvements, with the greatly enhanced approach to the port via Grafton Gully and Stanley St. Motorway improvements under way or planned will further enhance transport logistics. But none of these projects provides a direct route to and from the east.

An eastern highway was designated in the 1960s and remains an uncompleted section of Auckland's original master transport plan.

One option, as economist Gareth Morgan suggests, is to just "let Auckland choke". In a recent article, he presented the choice of fixing Auckland's infrastructure and allowing the region to continue powering the nation, or letting it choke, then atrophy, as people leave.

Are we going to stand by and let the vitality drain from our dynamic city and region? Is that what the opponents of roading want?

As mayors Sir Barry Curtis and John Banks say, the eastern highway is much more than a transport project. It's about energising economic growth and jobs throughout the region.

* Geoff Vazey is the chief executive of Ports of Auckland.