Here Comes the Train: $ 5 Billion Rail Tunnel Seen as a Solution to Link Auckland and North Shore

A new $ 5 billion rail tunnel to fix the growing congestion problems at Auckland’s Harbor Bridge should be built within the next 20 years and before any additional road network, according to a new business case.

The New Zealand Transportation Agency business case findings, to be considered by the Auckland Council’s planning committee on Thursday, come a month after Auckland came to a standstill in September when a truck blew up on the harbor bridge. , damaging the structure.

But instead of adding additional lanes to the country’s busiest route, the harbor bridge, or building a new highway, transportation officials recommend that work be done to improve public transportation options.

Work is already underway to improve the busway at a cost of between $ 500 and $ 600 million, and a detailed business case will be completed by the end of the year.

But 15 to 20 years from now, a new rail connection at an estimated cost of $ 5 billion would also be needed for a tunnel from downtown to Takapuna and Smales Farm. It would take another $ 3 billion to extend the track from Smales Farm to Albany.

Transportation experts did not believe that a new road connection was necessary to ease congestion on the aging Harbor Bridge until the mid to late 2040s, 10 years after the rail tunnel.

The highway options would then be to expand the existing bridge capacity or $ 10 billion for a highway tunnel from downtown to Esmonde Rd and additional highway lanes to Constellation Drive.

In addition to the infrastructure costs to improve the connections between the North Shore and downtown Auckland, an additional $ 100 million to $ 130 million per year would be required for operations and maintenance, primarily to manage tunnel operations.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said he wouldn’t spend billions of dollars on one incident every 60 years, like that truck that flew over the harbor bridge was, and the key drivers were population growth and accessibility.

He said the NZTA was “clearly leaning towards a public transport tunnel” as by the time the project was finished, Auckland would have a population of more than 2 million and it didn’t make much sense to bring more cars into an already congested city.

While both light rail and heavy rail were still weighed, Goff believed it was more likely to be light rail. If the popularity of the Northern Busway was something to go through, people would use public transportation, he said.

“If you are spending billions of dollars, then you have to look through a port connection that will stand the test of time. Time and population growth mean that we have to look for more effective ways to get people around. city ​​rather than a simple reliance on single-use vehicles. “

Goff appreciated that the central government covered most of the expensive infrastructure.

He also believed that a congestion tax would be another factor that could be considered to help manage demand on the highways during peak hours.