We still don’t know what it will look like or when it will be built, but any progress is welcome, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund for The Bulletin.

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One small step for Auckland

Welcome back, I hope you had a relaxing and sunny weekend.

This morning, we’re going to talk about a small but important update on a project many Aucklanders have been waiting decades to see realised. Initial work is set to get under way on plans for a second harbour crossing on Auckland’s Waitematā, reported the Herald’s Jamie Ensor yesterday. But don’t get too excited – we’re still a long way off any actual progress. As Ensor explained, the government has tasked the transport agency with looking at two “potential options” for the additional crossing and technical work is expected to begin in the coming months. Those two options are either a tunnel option (likely to be different to that put forward by Labour) or a second bridge. “I have directed NZTA to refine the scope of the crossing and develop a more detailed understanding of the costs, risks, trade-offs and assumptions for the tunnel and an equivalent bridge option, prior to seeking a decision from ministers on which option to progress,” said transport minister Simeon Brown.

However, any actual investment for the long-awaited crossing isn’t expected to be considered until mid-2026 – which will mean it comes just before the next election. It risks seeing the transport project become another political football, as it has in the past. But, since this is the first proper update we’ve received on the bridge in some months, let’s take a look at the seemingly never-ending debate over how we get more people from Auckland city to the North Shore.

Here we go again

In a typically droll ranking for The Spinoff last month, Hayden Donnell took a look at a range of proposed harbour crossings – from the more outlandish to the slightly more reasonable. Among the offerings (and ranked at the bottom) was Labour’s 2023 campaign pledge for a double road tunnel and light rail tunnel which would have cost at least $35bn and probably a lot more. The change of government pretty much killed that idea immediately, and it was already unpopular with both Auckland Council and transport officials.

The preferred option of Auckland mayor Wayne Brown is a new bridge that would run from Meola Reef to Kauri Point, reported Stuff. Donnell, again writing for The Spinoff, explained that the bridge “would cross a lava reef before disembarking at a swampy shoreline in the middle of an ammo dump, after which travellers would somehow ascend 100m and disgorge en masse onto an already busy arterial road”. It too faced a fair amount of backlash, including from within the council. The government hasn’t completely ruled out this option, though as The Post’s Thomas Manch reported in September, it also hasn’t endorsed it.

In the background, the transport agency has been working on the business case for a second crossing. As BusinessDesk’s Oliver Lewis (paywalled) reported in June, that has racked up a $36m bill – under both the former and current government – without any real progress being made. In short: there have been a lot of calls for an additional Waitematā crossing, and preliminary work is under way slowly behind the scenes, and yet we still have no real idea what the current government will put forward or when we might see some spades in the ground.

Where might we end up?

What we do know, explained the Herald’s Simon Wilson following a speech given by the transport minister Simeon Brown, is that any new bridge or tunnel will focus pretty squarely on road transport. The minister said he was focused on providing “extra lanes” for traffic and “enhancing the existing busway”. That’s not surprising given the coalition’s focus on improving travel for car users, but some – such as Greater Auckland’s Matt Lowry – would argue it’s disappointing. In discussing the mayor’s proposed road bridge, he wrote: “when pretty much every other water-crossing in the city has been improved in recent years for active and public transport… it’s wild to be suggesting a new Waitematā crossing that doesn’t foreground those missing modes”.

It will also, in theory, be cheaper. Shortly after the election, the very appropriately named Nick Truebridge reported for Newshub (RIP) that the new government wanted to cut back on the cost of a second harbour crossing, describing Labour’s approach as being “gold plated” and the addition of light rail as a “vanity project”. He may want to think about those comments should his government indeed push ahead with the “long tunnel” under Wellington.

‘Risk review’ for existing bridge

Meanwhile, RNZ’s Phil Pennington reported late last week that officials were ordered to check for fresh risks to the existing Auckland Harbour Bridge after a major disaster in the US. A container ship hit the Baltimore Bridge, causing it to collapse, back in March. As a result, our transport agency wanted a “risk review” to look at whether something similar could happen here.

The documents released to RNZ show that there were two “critical risks” for the bridge that required a “control plan” – but the document didn’t state what those risk were. It also didn’t explain how the risk management plan had been changed and “strengthened”. However, in a statement, Waka Kotahi said: “The risk of a ship strike to the Auckland Harbour Bridge has been assessed as having a rare likelihood due to the amount of risk mitigations that are currently in place”. That’s one silver lining we can take from this whole saga.