Additional crossings for Waitematā Harbour have been mulled over for years. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A North Shore community leader is questioning whether the Labour Party's multi-billion dollar harbour crossing plans will ever get off the ground because of the cost.
Labour announced on Sunday plans for three tunnels across Waitematā Harbour - two for vehicles and one for light rail expected to cost up to $45 billion.
Upper Harbour Local Board chair Anna Atkinson said the plan could be pivotal for the area.
"I think the crossing, if it happened it would be quite transformational. A lot of people from Albany do work in the city and we know the bridge is very brittle.
"And we've known for maybe 40 years or so that the bridge was going to need replacement, so it's good to see some planning."
But she said high costs could jeopardise the plans.
"Most people that I've spoken to are really worried about the price, and they are worried that is so gold-plated that it would never happen, that's the concern.
"That something so amazing has been chosen that we'll just end up with nothing because we will then go through detailed business case, detailed design, and the cost will go up and up and up and meanwhile nothing is happening.
"I really worry about the cost and how much will actually get done."
Atkinson said the community needed a seat on the table during the process.
"We really want the people of Albany and the local board involved in the planning because it could be transformational for our area.
"We really hope we can get involved in the process and it's not just run by some government department in Wellington that really doesn't know how we live and how we want to get around.
"It could be really good for us; we just need to be part of your plan."
Waka Kotahi estimated public transport travel times from Takapuna into the city would be improved by 20 percent under this plan, and from Albany to the CBD by 21 percent.
Atkinson was concerned cycleways would be left behind in the new harbour crossing plans.
"In this day and age, people want to walk and cycle, because it's fitter, it's freer, it's cheaper and it's much better for the climate.
"To say 'we are going to wait until we have done these horrifically expensive road tunnels before that becomes an option', I don't think that's good enough."
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
'They are not serious' - Mayor Wayne Brown
National's transport policy proposes a suite of new roads and a rapid transit network for Auckland, including a $2.3b Northwest Alternative State Highway.
In a statement, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said National and Labour's big plans were about politics, not transport.
"Both major parties need to realise that their big transport plans won't happen unless they work in partnership with Auckland, and that's not what has happened here."
He said the timing of an additional Waitematā harbour crossing should be considered as part of an integrated transport plan for Auckland.
"The proposals from both Labour and National to start it by 2029, and spend hundreds of millions of dollars on consultants in the meantime, are about politics not transport."
"They are not serious," Brown said.
Brown said the council was looking forward to working on some better, faster and cheaper plans.
'More data' - Auckland Business Chamber
The Auckland Business Chamber was questioning the traffic benefits Labour said the new harbour crossing would deliver.
Chief executive Simon Bridges said the plans needed to make a difference on traffic times for the cost to be justified.
"All the previous modelling shows a pretty underwhelming de-congestion benefit for general traffic, and congestion didn't even feature in the criteria that the crossing options were assessed against."
Bridges said a substandard de-congestion result would not be a good enough return on an investment likely to cost north of $40b, and would raise questions about whether decision-makers had been strategic enough in their approach.
"The questions don't just pertain to the road crossing.
"The light rail crossing is a massive part of this, and we still haven't seen any information to justify why this option was preferred over the others.
"As things move forward, we're going to want to see a lot more data, particularly when it comes to things like likely demand patterns for public transport in the future, and future capacity constraints on the Northern Busway."
He said people were eager to see better and more efficient transport connections in the region.
"There is no transport infrastructure project in the country with greater strategic significance, where the public is more engaged, or where the calls for action are louder or more widespread."
National transport spokesman Simeon Brown. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
'Don't support light rail' - National
National Party transport spokesperson Simeon Brown said light rail had never been a viable option and, if elected, it would not be included in the party's plans.
Brown called the plan "desperate politics" and said light rail never "stacked up".
"We support an additional connection which provides resilient road connection across the harbour.
"But we don't support light rail. It hasn't been stacking up below the bridge and it won't stack up in the North Shore either."
Brown did not rule out keeping some of the new tunnel plans if National was elected.
"National will look at what the government has put forward and the costs and the time around the construction of this plan.
"But we won't be wasting $60b of taxpayers' money in light rail which won't deliver what it has promised."
Minister defends project
Transport Minister David Parker told Morning Report this should be seen as a phased multi-decade investment.
"You've also got to consider the funding sources. So for example, Auckland Harbour Bridge - which let's not forget was built when the population of Auckland was 450,000 people back in 1959, so if it could be afforded then it's hard to think we can't afford something now.
"But that was paid for largely through tolls, now we are saying these expensive projects, you can't just put them all through the taxpayer or the taxpayers in other parts of New Zealand, you have to pay for them through tolls.
"Now there are some, including the mayor Wayne Brown, saying some of the costs can be further delayed if we introduce congestion pricing in the Auckland transport network and that's something that should be considered as well."
"Unless you do something, you're actually going to make matters worse by the motorways being clogged up" - Transport Minister David Parker
However, Parker did not believe a public-private partnership would save on costs for the project.
"It's just a different way of contracting it. Indeed, some of the public-private partnerships we've had experience of recently in New Zealand, including Transmission Gully, have resulted in some very large costs."
Waka Kotahi predicted there would be about 63,000 more people on the North Shore by 2050, and those people would need to be catered for, he said.
Giving people cheaper and faster choices via public transport would help ease congestion, he said, but he also acknowledged supporting motorways as well as public transport was important.
"The only way that you can create dedicated lanes whether it was in the tunnel, although they're proposed for the bridge, for public transport is to create some more space, because at the moment, we haven't got dedicated public transport lanes on the bridge, we've got this fantastic Northern [Express] busway but as it gets close to bridge, it comes back onto the motorway and crosses everywhere else and with everyone else."
On climate targets for reducing emissions, he said the answers in transport were complex.
"They include changing the way in which vehicles are fuelled from fossil fuels to electricity, whether it batteries or hydrogen, and a move to other modes of transport.
"We don't have rail to the North Shore so your effective choices short term are only buses and you've got to get more of them across the bridge."
Infrastructure NZ supports harbour tunnels and transport plan
Infrastructure NZ chief executive Nick Leggett said these projects envisioned a future of lower emissions and more resilience in the network, which would also help the economy.
"It's not just a project for tomorrow or the day after, it actually is a project for coming decades and that is what we have sadly lacked.
"I think the government should be congratulated on that and what we've got to do is build cross party support so irrespective of who is in government over the next decade and a half, this project can be progressed."
However, the sector did not believe the government could pay for this off its own balance sheet alone, Leggett said.
"If we want to get this done, the government has to look at external funders and people who can help deliver these projects in partnership so the government can stay in control, but actually why would you want the government to fund everything when there are disciplines and better ways of doing that that also take into consideration things like congestion charging, tolling, those things that built the Auckland Harbour Bridge and maintained it for 20 years."
"The government has to look at external funders" - Infrastructure NZ chief executive Nick Leggett
Although the minister did not see the cost benefits of a public-private partnership, Leggett said there had been good examples like the rollout of ultra fast broadband.
"What we have to do is ensure that it's not just the government that's paying for things, we want to spread that out to private sector finance, and that doesn't mean some offshore invisible entity that could mean superannuation funds, could be a whole host of groups who are prepared to invest in long-term projects where there's a guaranteed pipeline of work, and that includes building up our labour force, ensuring we've got skills, training ready here in New Zealand as well as drawing on those international markets as well."
Bringing in the expertise early was also essential, he said.
"New Zealand's got to build its infrastructure muscle and that really starts with the government; we've seen other projects where sadly New Zealanders have been let down because the government just didn't have the expertise to engage in a public private partnership.