Eastern highway funding plan puts onus on ratepayers

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Ratepayers could end up subsidising motorists to use the $460 million eastern highway under a funding proposal being investigated.

Instead of using tolls to finance the highway, council advisers have raised the possibility of paying a fee to a private operator for each car using the highway.

Under this scheme, known as shadow tolling, the highway would be free for motorists and ratepayers would pick up the tab for a private operator's investment in the six-lane highway and busway from central Auckland through the eastern suburbs to Manukau.

It would be similar to public transport subsidies.

The Eastdor group of consultants studying the highway for the Auckland and Manukau City Councils raised the issue of shadow tolling at a workshop of interested parties.

Craig Brownie, the managing director of Bancorp, said yesterday that shadow tolling had been used in Britain as a way for councils to finance roads over 20 years using private sector finance.

The way it worked was that private companies tendered to build a road on the basis of the number of vehicles using it.

In some cases, the subsidy reduced as more vehicles used the road.

Mr Brownie, who worked in Australia with Macquarie Investment Group, the largest owner of toll roads in the world, said that if fewer cars used the road then it was hard luck for the private operator.

Auckland Mayor John Banks said he was prepared to look at all the alternatives for financing the highway because the region was not going to be able to pay for all the motorway projects with public funds.

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Feature: Getting Auckland moving

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