Auckland City

Update on the Additional Waitematā Harbour Connections project

Thank you for signing up to receive updates on the Additional Waitematā Harbour Connections (AWHC) project. Longer-term planning for this project has been underway for some time and the recent work to establish next steps is now complete.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, Auckland Transport (AT) and Auckland Council have been working in partnership to develop a planning document called a business case, which has analysed the current and future problems faced in Auckland’s Northern Motorway corridor (including the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the Northern Busway). 

Outcomes from recent planning work

This work has looked into several options to address transport problems now and into the future, and recommends a way forward to provide a comprehensive and long-lasting response. A programme of investments have been identified to address these issues over time:

• Further investigate options to optimise existing infrastructure and delay the need for major investment (this will be looked at as part of wider regional planning).

• Upgrade and enhance the Northern Busway over the next few years to increase its capacity, reliability and overall service quality into the future. A planning document called a ‘Detailed Business Case’ further investigating Northern Busway enhancements is already being progressed by AT.

• Develop a rail-based rapid transit connection for the North Shore (including across the Waitematā Harbour to the city centre), that supplements and integrates with the upgraded Northern Busway and the wider public transport network to provide more public transport travel options.

• Improve roading connectivity to address resilience issues and growing all-day congestion on the state highway system, including the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Next steps

In the short term, Waka Kotahi, AT and Auckland Council will progress the following planning work:

1. A Detailed Business Case for ongoing busway enhancements (already underway by AT): This will develop a programme of busway enhancements to roll out as soon as possible.  More information on these improvements will be available in early-mid 2021 once the Detailed Business Case is completed.

2. Strategic Transport Networks planning work for:

Phase 1: An additional rail-based rapid transit connection across the Waitematā Harbour.  This phase will investigate the form (including mode) and alignment (route) of the new cross harbour rapid transit connection, including an understanding of timing.

Phase 2: Road and rapid transit. This phase will combine investigations of the wider rapid transit network on the North Shore with what roading system improvements should look like, when it is required, and how the new road crossing would interact with Phase 1. This will include assessment of seperated or combined crossing options.

Phase 3: Future proofing and route protection. This phase will seek to route protect the land identified as required from Phases 1 & 2.

Timings

This future business case planning work is expected to begin in 2021. This work will take an integrated full system approach and interdependencies with other transport projects need to be a key part of this future investigation.

These collective long-term solutions will likely be New Zealand’s biggest transport investments, costing billions of dollars and would be expected to take more than 15 years of design and construction work.  Consistent with earlier ATAP work, due to the time required to develop such major work, construction is not anticipated to start until at least the 2030s, other than the Northern Busway improvements that will start sooner to help keep up with growing bus patronage.

Engagement with stakeholders and the community will take place during the next planning phases in 2021 to help shape the project and gather insights into what customers need for future connections.  We will provide an update when this work has started next year and outline how you can be involved.

In the meantime, more information on this project can be found here.  The business case document will be published on the Waka Kotahi website in the coming weeks.

More information

For more information on the Additional Waitematā Harbour Connections project, email us at AWHC@nzta.govt.nz or visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/awhc.