Waitematā Harbour Crossing Submission
This week kicked off with our submission on the much needed second Waitematā Harbour Crossing, which promises to be the largest single infrastructure project in the country. This is much more than just another expensive Auckland project, fixing the current State Highway 1 arterial constraint will deliver transport benefits from Northland to the lower-North Island and beyond. We agree with our friends at the Auckland Chamber, a lot more detail needs to be provided before we can conclusively back any of the 5 options.
That said, NRC does support scenario 4 in our submission
which consists of a new light rail, walking and cycling bridge and a road tunnel. This option ticks a lot of the boxes: increasing productivity with extra capacity across the harbour, safer resilience to weather and climate changes, and minimal disruption to existing traffic throughout the build. Our overall preference is for more vehicle lanes to be added via an additional harbour bridge and a tunnel, enabling over-dimension loads to cross at the bridge rather than having to continue to the major State Highway 16 detour. Whatever the final solution is, the city, and realistically the country, needs it to happen much faster than the proposed 2029 start date. That’s why NRC is calling for a Kaikōura approach to the red-tape – let’s cut through it and just get on with it.
Upcoming NRC Events
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the job at NRC is getting out meeting our members. In the next couple of weeks, we have a couple of networking events coming up which I’m looking forward to. Firstly, we have an Auckland South member briefing event being held at Vernon Developments in Drury on 23 May from 5-7pm. I’ll be giving an update on NRC’s priorities and offerings for members, and Auckland Transport’s, Gill Evans and Julie Boucher, will be giving insight into upcoming roading changes across Franklin.
Secondly, we are hosting our AGM at the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club on Wednesday 21 June at 5pm. It’s a popular venue at the Half Moon Bay Marina and provides a more cost-effective AGM this year as we focus on looking after our member fees with the economic slowdown. If you have never attended before, the AGM is a great opportunity to meet the Board and to connect with our partners.
Be sure to keep an eye out for comms from the CTS team about other events happening in your region throughout the year, and for more information check out the NRC Events page.
Lastly, I’d like to give a warm thank you to Jeff and Yvette Mear for showing me around the impressive Fruehauf manufacturing facility in Wiri this week. It was a pleasure to meet with them and see up close a critical part of the road transport industry at work.
Keep safe on the roads over the next week, unfortunately it doesn’t look like the rain has quite departed yet.
Justin
CEO | National Road Carriers Assn
DDI: +64 9 636 2951 | E: justin.tighe-umbers@natroad.co.nz
| www.natroad.co.nz
‘Supporting those who choose to make a living in the Road Transport Industry’ since 1936’
