Source: Radio New Zealand
Auckland Harbour Bridge. 123rf
Imposing tolls on the existing Harbour Bridge won’t raise enough revenue to cover long-term costs of a new crossing, the editor of an advocacy website says.
The Infrastructure Commission has suggested a toll as high as $9 to help pay for a second crossing.
Greater Auckland editor Matt Lowrie told Morning Report that the estimated revenue from the toll is between $7 and $9 billion, while the projected costs of the crossing could exceed $20b.
When the bridge was first opened in 1959, motorists had to pay 2 shillings and 6 pence, a figure the Commission said equalled around $9 in 2025.
Tolls were removed in 1984.
Lowrie said while a second crossing is needed to provide more capacity, other payment options could be considered.
He also agreed that tolling both crossings was necessary because just tolling the new one meant people would simply continue using the existing bridge.
That would see a “multi-billion dollar piece of infrastructure … sit unused”.
Lowrie suggested a lower toll be implemented to see the impact of it.
He said the addition of the Northern Busway in 2008 had delayed the need to spend billions of dollars on a harbour crossing as the uptake from commuters had taken the pressure off the existing bridge.
Whether a toll was introduced or not, Lowrie said Aucklanders would end up paying the bulk of the cost through a road tax or fuel taxes being raised.
But the majority would come from Crown investment – and that had to be weighed up amongst the need for improvements to hospitals and schools, he said.
On Tuesday, Transport Minister Chris Bishop said the new crossing would be the biggest infrastructure project New Zealand has ever done.
While the new crossing would be tolled, a question remained over whether the existing bridge would be tolled as well.
“We are working our way through that. That’s a very big decision for the country to make,” he said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
