Second Auckland harbour crossing: Why Meola Reef bridge option is best value for money – Wayne Brown

The same cannot be said of the current Government, which continues to waste your money and mine on the pipedream of a tunnel under the harbour.

It will never, ever happen. They (and Labour) have already ploughed $37 million into this fantasy, with precisely zero to show for it.

Another $177m is planned over the next three years just thinking about it, by which time over $210m of public funds will have been squandered. Consultants will be milking it for all they can. Light rail II, anyone?

I can’t stand seeing money wasted. There is so much we could be doing with those funds. The Government lectures councils about wasteful spending, which is fair enough.

But they have to get their own house in order if they want to be taken seriously. The amount being flushed away on the idea of a cross-harbour tunnel should be cause for public revolt.

Any second harbour crossing needs to give the best value possible and achieve the maximum benefit for Aucklanders.

Tunnels are much dearer than bridges – our grandparents knew that. Recent experience with the City Rail Link (CRL) shows tunnels usually cost at least double the original estimate.

That puts the true cost of a tunnel in the vicinity of at least $34 billion (note: much bigger figures are being bandied about) – or equivalent to more than a decade of national road spending on one project that actually achieves nothing.

A much better option is a bridge further along from the existing one that goes across the next-shortest point. This diffuses traffic and takes demand away from the existing bridge.

A tunnel in the same location as the current bridge achieves nothing: the approach roads on either side will still be choked.

I’ve proposed Meola Reef as the site for a second crossing. There may well be other good ideas and I’m open to hearing them.

We should be having a public debate about this, not just blithely allowing the major parties to waste more money on the folly of a tunnel.

The Meola option has a fair bit going for it: the reef goes 80% of the way across the harbour and could allow a causeway to be built across those shallow waters at comparatively low cost, ramping up to match the topography on the North Shore side and allow boats to pass underneath.

I’ve seen various experts (who, as far as I’m aware, have no actual experience building and owning bridge assets) saying Meola could still cost hundreds of millions.

That is probably true – but hundreds of millions are way less than thousands of millions.

The outbreak of Nimby-ism we’ve seen since I started talking about Meola is sadly predictable. It’s a good example of the mentality that threatens to hold Auckland back.

Various locals have raised possible concerns about environmental impacts and property values at Point Chevalier. People forget that most of our CBD is reclaimed and there’s no noise about that.

As mayor, it’s my job to think about Auckland as a whole.

We have to elevate the discussion or we are doomed to more pandering and self-interest while the big picture gets lost.

No matter which option we take for a second harbour crossing, there will be some localised impacts. There are no soft options here. If there were, you can bet the major parties would have taken them long ago.

Don’t forget a tunnel would have massive impacts of its own – excavation, trucking rubble through the city to be dumped somewhere, building approach roads on both sides and the release of exhaust fumes.

The Government has run this process entirely behind closed doors. They’ve released a couple of glossy maps but there is no detail and we have had minimal token engagement, despite being a so-called partner.

We need to interrogate whatever NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) is secretly working on. Their history of cost blowouts should have alarm bells ringing.

I’ve been trying to meet with this team but can’t even find out where their office is.

Aucklanders need to stop being so apathetic and allowing Wellington to foist its decision-making on our lives.

We live here and love this city. We know best and should be having a discussion among ourselves about what we want.

I’m happy to see people poking and prodding the Meola Reef crossing option. At least we’re starting to have a debate on our own terms.

It would be good if we could quickly get to a point where, as a city, we kicked around a few options and then locked in around one. We showed we can do this with the CRL, now we need to overcome the temptation to bicker among ourselves and come together again.

This would create the political pressure needed to get Wellington to stop wasting money on a tunnel.

They’ll keep going if we let them – and we’ll have nothing to show for it at the end.