Reset was happy to obtain a response from NZ Transport Company Waka Kotahi (NZTA) to the article revealed by ArchitectureNow.co.nz about its internationally award-winning Waitematā Harbour Crossings proposal.
(Editor’s observe: You may learn NZTA’s observe on the finish of our earlier article on Reset’s harbour crossing design)
provided
It’s the primary time we’ve heard again from the government-owned entity relating to our quite a few second Auckland bridge idea articles revealed over the past 5 years, all geared toward drawing consideration to the company’s baffling lack of other choices and closed-door processes.
However we want greater than only a response to editorial from NZTA. Larger transparency, and the involvement of unbiased specialists is significant. Getting the second Auckland harbour crossing proper is in everybody’s greatest pursuits, and we’re working out of time.
We’re not alone; Barney Irvine, Government Director of the Northern Infrastructure Discussion board referred to as out the NZTA, asking them to ‘break the cycle of planning failure’ in his current NZ Herald article.
The Northern Infrastructure Discussion board is a coverage and advocacy organisation made up of infrastructure planning and decision-making leaders to assist elevate the usual of recent constructed tasks throughout the Higher North Island.
Let’s hope this marks the start of a extra thought of course of as NZTA strikes in direction of saying the Authorities’s most well-liked strategy for the extra Waitematā crossing within the coming months.
However NZTA state of their response to us that ‘the one two choices being thought of are positioned to the east of the prevailing Auckland Harbour Bridge.’ Disappointingly, in any case this time, and with all the cash they’ve spent, they’re already heading within the mistaken route.
A brand new bridge towards the prevailing iconic bridge is not going to fly with the general public, and a tunnel is just unaffordable.
Pricey and Mishandled InitiativesThere have already been at the very least 4 further Auckland harbour crossing tasks introduced by NZTA on behalf of governments of the time, and all of those concepts have been shelved. This work has come at appreciable value to the taxpayer.
The general undertaking spend since 1996 has not been disclosed, although it’s public data that the Northern Pathway, an NZTA initiative, value $63 million and was withdrawn mere weeks after its 2021 announcement. With the most recent research budgeted from 2023 at $60 million, that’s a present spend price of over $1 million per 30 days. The precise scope of labor stays unclear, particularly contemplating earlier efforts. If earlier work was inadequate, it raises questions on oversight and transparency, as little to nothing has been shared with the public.
It could come as a shock to some that in December 2023, the Authorities suggested that ‘Waitematā Harbour Connections shouldn’t proceed with the sunshine rail or strolling and biking elements of the undertaking.’
With growing requires people-powered transport hyperlinks, that is unacceptable. We must be lowering visitors congestion and growing entry.
New Zealand taxpayers don’t wish to preserve paying out for poorly conceived plans, or proposals that don’t eventuate.
Absence of Peer ReviewThe lack of enter from unbiased specialists into this, the largest infrastructure undertaking New Zealand has ever seen, is trigger for actual concern.
All through the undertaking’s historical past, NZTA has been proof against criticism and various proposals. Since 2008, the company has closely favoured a tunnel, and solely lately, in 2024, has needed to entertain a bridge choice when the incoming Minister of Transport instructed it to do so.
Unbiased peer evaluation is a trademark of greatest apply on massive tasks, providing neutral assessments that assist forestall expensive errors and guarantee strong design.
For a undertaking of this magnitude, an unbiased knowledgeable peer evaluation panel would sometimes be established, as is customary for all main Auckland waterfront developments and people performed by the Auckland Council City Design Panel.Larger Auckland’s Connor Sharp agrees and says in a current piece: “…We’re caught consistently pouring our cash in direction of specialists who beaver away in secret on tasks deemed politically delicate, solely revealing their near-complete shovel-ready designs on the final minute, to public dismay. Fortunately there’s a promising approach ahead. An unbiased fee that researches and ranks all large-scale, long-term tasks – with the outcomes then offered to a citizen’s meeting for consideration…It might additionally refocus the specialists – and our treasured public funding – on sustaining transparency, clarifying what’s at stake, and regaining belief.”
We ask that NZTA engages an unbiased peer evaluation panel with out delay.
Lack of Public EngagementNZTA has been tasked by central authorities to handle the method, but public involvement has been minimal.
Auckland’s Mayor Wayne Brown has voiced issues about being excluded from key discussions because the NZTA’s specialists proceed to develop and assess choices behind closed doorways.The NZTA’s ‘have your say’ marketing campaign in 2023 was low-profile, open to the general public for less than six weeks and offered a massively inflated determine for the price of the bridge choice. Considerably coincidently it equaled the price of a tunnel. Worldwide and nationwide precedents firmly point out that setting up a bridge is a couple of tenth of the price of a tunnel and fewer susceptible to value blowouts.
Labour Get together chief Chris Hipkins quoted the ‘have your say’ survey in his current State of the Nation speech throughout query time saying a second harbour crossing is estimated to value $20b.
Evidently, by accepting this unacceptably inflated value, the present Coalition Authorities and the opposition events have been critically misinformed. They urgently have to take heed to certified specialists from outdoors a crown-owned entity.
This lack of transparency has carried out nothing to construct public belief, confidence and buy-in.
Delays and RisksThe course of for the second Waitematā Crossing started in 1996 and has continued with a sequence of shelved tasks for 30 years.
As Irvine says ‘over this time, the situation of the prevailing bridge continues to deteriorate (alongside ongoing upkeep and upgrades, additional restrictions on vehicles might be wanted inside 15 years) and building prices normally proceed to march upwards.’
The urgency for a second harbour crossing is obvious. As a consequence, the vary of choices accessible – based mostly on what we will afford, what could be constructed, and the structural integrity of the prevailing bridge – will get narrower and narrower.
The precedence, above all else, is to extend the resilience of Auckland’s present harbour bridge.
The upcoming announcement should break the cycle of poor decision-making and its corresponding delays.
Name for AccountabilityThe Authorities is already warming the general public as much as a toll – at present instructed at $9 every approach, and this being for the present bridge, earlier than work has even begun on a second crossing.
It’s not too late to demand accountability via an unbiased evaluation of the course of.
With mounting guide bills, and 30 years of go-nowhere research stockpiling, rigorous exterior analysis is crucial to safeguard public curiosity and be sure that the undertaking speedily delivers real worth for New Zealanders, together with provision for strolling and biking, devoted public transport lanes and elegantly matches inside our world-class harbour.
NZTA personnel have to do extra than simply reply to commentary; they should hear. Their ‘belief us, wait and see’ strategy isn’t good sufficient.
Garth Falconer 26/2/2026
Garth Falconer, one in every of New Zealand’s foremost city designers, is a director at Reset and creator of Dwelling in Paradox; a historical past of city design throughout kainga, cities and cities in New Zealand (2015) and Harry Turbott: New Zealand’s first panorama architect (2020). He was the previous design lead of the SkyPath undertaking.
