John Banks and Sir Barry Curtis: Eastern highway will benefit city and nation

COMMENT

Professor Tim Hazledine posed the question: at what price would we walk away from the eastern highway project? $5 billion? $7 billion?

This is a question we relish receiving, as every economist knows the answer - when the costs exceed the benefits.

Even at $4 billion, the benefits to Auckland's economy over time are huge. In simple terms, industrial transport use in areas along the eastern transport corridor is projected to double by 2030; with the construction of the highway, the contribution from these industries to gross domestic product will treble.

The Government's 10-year, $1.62 billion transport infrastructure funding package unveiled late last year was promoted under the banner of "investing for growth - a strategy for helping New Zealand get back to the top half of the OECD".

We could not agree more. We have been around Auckland's incomplete roading network problems for at least 25 years, since we both sat on the transport committee at the Auckland Regional Authority. We're now leading the charge to get the job done.

Building the eastern highway is an investment for securing sustainable growth in a rapidly expanding area of Auckland. In a report on the economic and strategic importance of the eastern corridor, research group Berl conclude that within the Panmure and Glen Innes areas alone, development largely triggered by investment in building the highway could add $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year to the nation's wealth.

Over the whole corridor, the benefits, including social multipliers, could reach $46 billion. The Berl report highlights the fact that the corridor is not just a transport project; it is an urban transformation and economic development project that will increase Auckland's ability to promote national growth.

Clearly there are significant growth nodes emerging along the corridor route. They include:

* The Botany Downs retail centre.

* The Tamaki campus of Auckland University, which has 4000 students and is destined soon to have 10,000.

* The East Tamaki innovation park, which is destined to cluster numerous new knowledge-based businesses around the brainpower of the university.

* The Mt Wellington quarry residential area, and new retail centre at Sylvia Park.

* Manufacturing clusters in East Tamaki that need efficient transport links to the sea and airports.

In all, by 2030 the population immediately next to the route in the Glen Innes-Panmure-East Tamaki-Botany Downs area will have doubled to 60,000 - an urban centre bigger than Whangarei.

Like it or not, Auckland's growth will continue. Over the recent past, we have added a Dunedin (100,000) every five years; we are speeding up, adding 100,000 every four years. We must manage this growth in ways that ensure Auckland's economy continues to function efficiently and effectively, while also providing citizens with a quality environment.

That's why we are passionate about the eastern highway - it is not just a motorway, or simply a corridor that will include buses, rail, walking and cycling. The urban transformation and economic development that will follow in its wake underpin its vision.

Land-value rises in the area are already being attributed to the prospect of its being built.

At $4 billion, the eastern highway will be among the biggest economic development projects undertaken in New Zealand. But the benefits are as significant and the stakes as high not just for Auckland but the rest of the country.

Auckland is the powerhouse of the national economy. We have 31 per cent of the population; 32 per cent of jobs; we produce 34 per cent of national GDP. As a small nation, remote from global markets and increasingly reliant on a single large urban business community, New Zealand cannot afford the strangulation of our economy by Auckland's gridlock.

Surely every economist would agree we cannot continue the absurdity of a half-built urban motorway network that forces regional and even city traffic onto local roads and residential streets.

Professor Hazledine suggests Auckland needs an environmentally and economically sound transport strategy. We agree. He ignores the fact that Auckland already has one - the regional land transport strategy, which includes the eastern transport corridor as well as other components such as the western corridor, comprehensive public transport, and policies aimed at promoting greater integration between all modes, including rail, ferries and buses.

Our problem is not lack of a strategy; it is lack of political leadership, organisation and courage to transfer the strategy from the plans onto the ground.

Under the incomplete motorway system, traffic moving between the cities and suburbs of the region has no choice but to either become gridlocked on the Southern Motorway or take its chances on inner-city and suburban streets.

The eastern highway will provide a dedicated transport ring route that links the various economic growth clusters in the eastern suburbs, and provide accessibility to the rest of the regional network; to the North Shore through the link to State Highway 16 in Grafton Gully, to west Auckland through links at Manukau and Mt Wellington.

If Professor Hazledine truly wants "reason to prevail", he would assess the risks to Auckland's economy of not proceeding. He would also analyse why investing in transport infrastructure to cater for Auckland's growth is getting more expensive, and will continue to rise.

First, satisfying the Government's new objectives in the transport management laws is estimated to have added 30 per cent to the cost of the highway. This increase can be expected for all major urban transport projects.

Even with these costs, however, the Berl analysis concludes that not investing in transport infrastructure which promotes sustainable growth will be even more expensive for Aucklanders and New Zealand.

It is better for the region that compact growth occurs in the eastern corridor than in outlying suburbs, and appropriate infrastructure must be provided to accommodate this.

Given the popular demand for the eastern highway, with its projected benefits to the economy, the greater outcry would be if we took Professor Hazledine's advice and abandoned the project.

But our own beliefs, backed by expert opinion, continue to reinforce the fact that the benefits for building the corridor far outweigh the costs.

* John Banks is the Mayor of Auckland City; Sir Barry Curtis is the Mayor of Manukau City. They are replying to Professor Hazledine's view that the cost of the highway should accelerate the search for alternative strategies.