The announcement of a few headline pedestrian, cycle and rail infrastructure projects will come at the expense of roading projects dear to the hearts of some communities.
ANALYSIS: Today’s announcement of a cycle and pedestrian crossing of Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour will be welcomed by the many cyclists who bust barricades to ride the bridge at the weekend. But let’s be clear, fast-rising construction costs mean that for every headline infrastructure announcement, there will be other communities ruing the loss of investment in the projects they care about.
Transport Minister Michael Wood and Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson will this morning announce more detail of what’s in, and what’s out, in the $12bn NZ Upgrade Programme that dominated Covid stimulus spending.
There will be confirmed spending on cycle, pedestrian and rail routes, likely to include the Auckland-to-Whangārei rail upgrade. But there are real question marks over whether the Whangārei to Port Marsden Highway will proceed at all.
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* Red light: Highway projects cancelled in big shift from road to rail
Some roading projects will survive: the Otaki-to-north-of-Levin highway is expected to be green lit.
Ahead of last month's Budget, I reported here that the announcement of a new lightweight bridge immediately next to the existing one was imminent. The hope is that by moving a few cyclists and pedestrians to that bridge, it might make way for buses and other heavier vehicles on the existing bridge.
Transport Minister Michael Wood says the NZ Upgrade Programme is supporting the country’s economic recovery. “But due to Covid-19 increasing construction costs globally and the need to further reduce emissions, we’re rebalancing the programme to increase investment in rail, public transport and walking and cycling.”
This morning, he will confirm which projects will survive: “The majority of projects will remain unchanged,” he tells Newsroom Pro.
But many will now be more expensive. For instance, attaching a pathway to the existing bridge had been deemed too expensive, at $260m. Now, the Government is set to announce $685m for an entirely new cycle and pedestrian bridge, and another $100m for a cycleway north beyond Northcote Point.
Wood said geotechnical investigations and testing has determined that building a structure connected to the Auckland Harbour Bridge was not possible, as the existing piers were not able to accommodate the extra weight without considerable modifications to counter balance the increased load involving additional risk to the bridge.
“We need this transport connection to move ahead but it isn’t technically possible to attach it to the existing bridge without putting the whole structure at risk," he said. "A stand-alone structure is the safest option that will not only provide a walking and cycling option for commuters but creates an outstanding piece of tourism infrastructure."
“Major international cities all around the world have similar connections and we’ve all seen how well used the Te Ara I Whiti - Lightpath has become, with the Northern Pathway having the potential to be a bigger tourist drawcard.
“Northern Pathway is the missing link in Auckland’s walking and cycling network and Aucklanders finally will be able to get across the harbour by foot or bike - it’s important we get it right and make sure it’s an enduring piece of infrastructure, providing alternative modes of transport across the harbour and helping reduce congestion on our Auckland roads.
“In the meantime, Waka Kotahi will continue to work on how to provide safe temporary trials of using lanes on the existing harbour bridge for cyclists and pedestrians."
As we report on The Detail podcast the Government has been too slow to come up with a solution for active transport across the harbour.
So is it too much to ask that the funding for a cycle and pedestrian bridge alongside the existing Auckland Harbour Bridge be an end to the indecision of past years?
Sadly, yes. This won’t address Waka Kotahi’s wider concerns about the need for a new road-and-rail crossing. Auckland business leaders say the Government would be better to fund road, rail and active transport in one big chunky crossing, rather than building a series of expensive part-solutions.
The Auckland Business Forum is welcoming the signs of progress on the Upgrade Programme, but questions whether the Government can deliver on all its infrastructure promises.
Chair Michael Barnett says he is “deep concerned” that the initial cost estimates for the projects were so far wrong. “Sure, Covid-19 might have played a part in pushing up costs since the projects were first announced, but it’s also clear that they didn’t do their homework right at the start. It continues a pattern of over-promising and under-delivery on infrastructure.”
This comes after a damning report into the Transmission Gully public-private partnership that found officials had badly under-costed the big north Wellington highway’s contruction, jeopardising its very completion.
Barnett says the spending on a cycle bridge is "crazy". “Road and rail projects are desperately needed all over the city to lessen the congestion choke-hold, but they’re being held up because of funding," Barnett says. "Now the Government’s proposing to spend nearly $1 billion on a project that supports only a tiny number of users."
The ACT party’s transport spokesperson Simon Court called on Michael Wood to release the cost-benefit analysis for the walking/cycling bridge. “This is essentially Sky Path on steroids, driven by climate activists. Taxpayers deserve to know whether this stacks up."
Perhaps most worrying is that Government is ploughing money into glamour projects against the advice of the infrastructure commission Te Waihanga – the very body established to provide a strategic direction to NZ's infrastructure spending.
Te Waihanga chief executive Ross Copland argues we need to look for ways to use existing infastructure better – and last month told Newsroom that NZ Transport Agency would be better to turn over a lane of the existing bridge to bikes and pedestrians. “Is the best solution to build another asset next to the existing bridge for hundreds of millions of dollars to be used by less than 1 percent of the people that cross the bridge every day?" he asked. "Or is it to change the use of the existing asset?”
