Building the Northern Expressway: If Government can’t afford it we need to consider alternative funding options, including tolls - Joe Carr

THREE KEY FACTS

• The Government is looking for investors to help build the first section of the Northland Expressway, which, when fully complete, will link Auckland to Whangārei with four lanes of expressway-quality road.
• The expressway is estimated to be one of NZ’s most expensive infrastructure projects, with the Infrastructure Commission estimating the project will consume one dollar in every 10 spent by the Government on infrastructure over the next 25 years – excluding maintenance and renewals.
• The first section will connect with the expressway north of Auckland, which currently ends at Warkworth, taking the road to Te Hana, a journey of 26km. It will include an 850m-long twin bore tunnel in the Dome Valley and three interchanges located at Warkworth, Wellsford and Te Hana.

A recent opinion piece by Herald writer Simon Wilson on public-private partnerships used tolling the Northern Expressway as a case study (Mar 19).

As chair of the Northland Regional Transport Committee I must take issue with aspects of the column.

The reality is that href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/northland/" target="_blank">Northland has suffered from decades of under-investment in its land transport infrastructure and has long suffered the effects of this.

Over the years, various governments have advocated for opening up Northland to the rest of New Zealand to allow for greater investment, improving the regional economy and addressing/rectifying the high level of social deprivation.

Northland accounts for around $2.3 billion in export earnings each year that provide funds for the myriad of imported goods that are taken for granted. For example a recreational bike, solar panel or the latest cellphone, medicine, vehicle and fuel for it.

The Northland Regional Transport Committee, backed by the Northland Mayoral Forum and the Northland industrial sector, has consistently sought, as the highest priority for construction, the Roads of National Significance bypasses of Dome Valley and the unstable section of State Highway 1 known as the Brynderwyns.

Both sections are renowned for their high risk profile, closures and the absence of adequate detours.

One only need look at the region’s prolonged closures of the Brynderwyns (Whangārei district) and the Mangamukas (Far North district) in recent years for two high-profile examples of this.

I don’t think there is any other place in New Zealand with the same problem. It has become quite clear that when either route fails, there is no long-term viable alternative.

We see criticism of the Government’s determination to sort this as rather trite.

The good people of Auckland should see value in further de-risking and improving this singularly strategic road link between Auckland and Northland.

Let us consider the vulnerability of Auckland, the consumers of more than one-third of all imported goods to New Zealand, to interrupted supply lines.

One of the two major ways that imported goods enter Auckland is by rail to MetroPort from the Port of Tauranga, a port with high risk from earthquake and interruption to its electricity supply from volcanic activity.

It is mainly for this reason that the Port of Tauranga, Auckland Council and Northland Regional Council are working constructively to develop Whangārei’s Northport as an effective complementary port for the upper North Island.

The improvements to SH1 identified by the NZ Transport Agency and successive governments between Auckland and Whangārei are essential.

Additionally, economic modelling released last year by the Northland Corporate Group in partnership with the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research found a high-quality, four-lane highway between Auckland and Northland could boost national GDP by $1.2b by 2050.

Successive governments have acknowledged that one of the best ways of achieving the host of benefits that would accrue to Northland – and the nation – is by providing a “fit for purpose” land transport infrastructure, both road and rail.

The current Government has made it quite clear that it does not have the funding itself and that in order to construct projects of such magnitude, it needs to look at alternative funding options, including tolls.