Council advisers play down tolls

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Tolls are not the answer to paying for the $460 million eastern highway, say council advisers.

A financial report on the highway says all the modelling shows toll revenue would make a "minor" contribution to the cost of the scheme.

Auckland Mayor John Banks and Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis have promoted tolls as the way to build the six-lane highway and busway from the city through the eastern suburbs to Manukau.

They say there is not enough public money to complete all the roading projects in Auckland.

This is backed up by the national road building agency, Transit New Zealand, which is focused over the next decade on completing a western ring route based on State Highway 20.

The report, by the Eastdor group of consultants, says the eastern highway would not qualify for public money until 2009.

This means it would not be built until 2012 at the earliest.

Mr Banks and Sir Barry have set an ambitious target of completing the 27km highway by 2008.

Mr Banks has staked his political future on the project, which Eastdor says is the single largest project undertaken by local government in Auckland.

Mr Banks, who has said any private-sector investors would expect a "pound of flesh", estimates that a return trip on the highway could cost $5.

In Sydney, the cost of crossing the harbour bridge is NZ$3.50 and another $4 to drive on the motorway from the inner-city to the airport.

In Melbourne, a weekend pass on the 20km City Link costs $10.70 and travelling in rush-hour costs $5.

Toll roads have dramatically reduced congestion and travelling time in Australia - and been profitable.

All toll roads report strong growth in traffic volume and revenue in the past year, according to research by Deutsche Bank.

The Eastdor report says revenue forecasts from tolls are "not encouraging" - about $12 million a year by 2021.

This might attract investment of between $50 million and $80 million from the private sector towards the $460 million project.

The authors say this is not a surprising result because using tolls to fund a road where there is a free alternative is rarely financially or economically efficient.

Tolls work best where all roads are tolled, as in Singapore, or the alternatives take much longer.

Legislation planned by the Government for toll roads will make it compulsory for there to be a free alternative.

The report says another drawback for tolling the eastern highway is that most traffic will use short sections, with only a small amount of end-to-end traffic.

"This makes the design of an efficient and effective toll system very difficult."

A "radical" suggestion in the report is to turn the eastern highway into a full ring road, possibly with a third harbour crossing, and make the ring road the "free alternative". Then motorists could be charged for entering the city.

The report says more detailed work needs to be done to gain an understanding of how much people would be prepared to pay for tolls on the eastern highway.

A traffic research unit at the University of Sydney found that many drivers avoid toll roads and "rat-run using lower-standard roads that go through communities".

Further reading
Feature: Getting Auckland moving

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