Next Government urged to accelerate Aucklands Transport Infrastructure Programme

“There is no time like the present to fast-track vital Auckland roading and public transport projects,” says Auckland Business Forum chairman Michael Barnett.

“When the recession finishes, the last thing Auckland should have to face is that basic infrastructure is still not in place for the region to take full advantage of the opportunity to improve productivity and grow the economy.”

Releasing the Auckland Business Forum Election Manifesto 2008, Mr Barnett recalled that New Zealand’s greatest historical leap forward in the provision of infrastructure was during tough economic times in the 1930s and 1890s. “The legacy of the 1930s Depression was a public works programme that ensured when the good times returned there was a vital rail and road infrastructure platform in place for the New Zealand economy to grow into one of the most prosperous by the 1950s.”

“There is a strong justification to once again take a bold and visionary approach to bring forward Auckland’s long-planned major transport projects and do so in a co-ordinated strategy,” he suggests.

Although the current Government has increased transport expenditure in Auckland from around $200 million a year in the late 1990s to more than $1 billion this year, the level of investment continues to fall well short of what’s required to future-proof Auckland to function as a modern metropolitan city with an internationally competitive economy.

The projects the Forum wants focused attention on include:

SH20 Waterview and the whole of the Western Ring Route ASAP by 2014/15 or sooner.
SH1 Newmarket Viaduct and Victoria Park tunnel projects.
SH1-20: East Tamaki-Onehunga (Neilson St) corridor, one of Auckland’s most congested and inefficient freight bottlenecks.
A policy change so the Auckland-Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) can be progressed as a national priority project.
A 3rd Waitemata Harbour Crossing designed to meet long-term demand over the total metropolitan transport network, both motorways and public transport.

Mr Barnett called for an integrated transport programme that also embraced faster completion of long-discussed public transport projects and vital connections with neighbouring regions, including:

Rail network extensions that will assist to free up Auckland roads for essential business traffic, including rail freight links to inland ports at East Tamaki, Wiri, North Shore and Northland, the CBD rail loop and a CBD-Airport passenger rail link from the main truck at Manukau.
Waikato Expressway and other vital road improvements to Northland, and Bay of Plenty, including the Kopu Bridge replacement linking the Coromandel Peninsula.

Use Debt Funding and the Private Sector

The next government should allow the use of more private sector investment including public private partnerships (PPPs) and borrowing to fund the new investment. This would help overcome capital constraints, accelerate planning and construction and provide access to private sector expertise.

Similar to the commercial ‘can do’ approach of numerous world cities such as Sydney (who now have 8 toll routes), Brisbane and Melbourne, and others (Oslo is a stand out example in Europe), there is potential to cluster and fund larger projects collectively through development of a strategic toll network or debt funding programme.

As well as the approved Alpurt B2 toll project in Rodney District, Penlink, Waterview, AMETI, 3rd Harbour Crossing, SH1-20: E-W corridor, could all be funded by a PPP/strategic toll network policy option, along with other large projects such as the Waikato Expressway and Transmission Gully in Wellington.

There is a strong justification for a bold and visionary approach to address Auckland’s (and New Zealand’s) transport infrastructure funding deficit:

NZ’s transport funding gap is around $20 billion in today’s dollars. If a decision was taken to deliver the major projects within 15-20 years, that equates to roughly $1 billion per annum i.e. approximately 0.6% of GDP.
An increase in transport funding of this magnitude could easily be achieved through debt funding.
With a ‘user pay’ toll network approach enabling private sector inputs (i.e. PPPs as part of funding tool box), the funding risk for Government would be shared more equitably and ‘free up’ options for the State to fund improved public sector projects faster than currently.

“Prudent use of debt to fund investment in the infrastructure necessary to grow the New Zealand economy represents good fiscal management and will provide a timely stimulus to the economy when it is most needed.

“We will be scrutinising parties’ policies and level of urgency and compare them with this call for a revitalised commitment to do what it takes to ensure Auckland has the best platform possible for helping to take New Zealand forward,” concluded Mr Barnett.