Longer-term issues

Finally, we identify four issues that the Government expects will be nationally important over the longer term. The first is enhancing transport linkages across the harbour in Auckland, the second is the relationship between infrastructure and land use planning in our cities, the third is the related issue of alignment between national infrastructure planning and regional and local planning, and the fourth is the need to undertake more work on transport pricing as a way of managing demand, getting the best modal choice, and creating resilience in our transport system.

An additional Waitemata harbour crossing

Good transport connections across the Waitemata harbour are critical for Auckland's economic performance, providing a vital physical and economic link between north and south of the harbour. The existing Auckland Harbour Bridge is being strengthened to ensure it remains a strong, safe and viable link long into the future. However building an additional harbour crossing is an important priority as the city grows, and it is a key component of the Government's infrastructure plans for Auckland.

The New Zealand Transport Agency has been working with councils and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority in Auckland to identify and protect possible routes for the new crossing, which could come in the form of tunnels or a bridge. Together with the existing bridge, the new crossing will encourage and facilitate growth in line with the strategic land use objectives of the Auckland Regional Growth Strategy, provide a more resilient network, and link rapid transit networks on the North Shore and Auckland. Provision of the new link will also ensure access across the harbour for all modes, including general traffic, commercial vehicles, public transport, cyclists and pedestrians.

Although this is a longer term project, technical work focused on planning and engineering has already started. Also, to protect the route, the New Zealand Transport Agency has lodged notices of requirement. Construction will likely occur in the second half of the 20-year timeframe of this Plan.

The performance of our cities: infrastructure planning and urban form

Major infrastructure projects, especially transport projects, can have a significant impact on the location and form of economic activity in our cities: they tend to shape urban development, guiding or influencing households and firms to make particular locational choices. In this way, the decisions made about where, when and what infrastructure is constructed, whether it is significant transport investment or social infrastructure investment such as schools and hospitals, can have a significant influence on the future anatomy of a city, locking in patterns of demand for generations. The anatomy of a city can then be a significant influence on the city's resilience - hindering or helping its adaption to changing environmental, demographic and economic conditions.

While the Government is concerned about the co-ordination and delivery of infrastructure that responds to existing problems, investments also need to be able to anticipate future needs, particularly in a rapidly-growing urban centre like Auckland. This means central and local government need to think about how to ensure the right strategic, or ‘shaping', infrastructure is delivered at the right time and in the right place, to ensure maximum productivity and social welfare gains over the longer term. In terms of transport, this means giving thought to those projects that will produce the most desired pattern of household and firm location, reduce aggregate travel times, facilitate connectivity, and offer long-term economic, environmental and population health benefits.

Work that the Government is currently undertaking as part of phase two of the resource management reforms, drawing on previous work undertaken by the Ministry for the Environment, Department of Building and Housing, and Department of Internal Affairs, touches on these issues.

Auckland has New Zealand's largest urban infrastructure aspirations. These include the Waterview Connection, the new Waitemata Harbour crossing, a CBD rail tunnel and an airport rail link. It is clear that it will not be feasible for Auckland or New Zealand to fund all these multibillion-dollar projects at the same time. The projects will need to be scoped, prioritised and phased to ensure that steady progress can be maintained while simultaneously ensuring that work continues on improving the infrastructure and networks that already exist. This will require the region to reach clear conclusions about how it wants Auckland to grow, and the balance it wants to strike between improving existing capacity and adding new capacity to the network. This will also require alignment with central government plans and objectives, which leads to the next strategic issue.

Alignment between central and local government

Effective alignment and integration between national and local infrastructure investment frameworks, particularly in our large urban areas, is important for getting the right infrastructure built in the right place at the right time, and providing greater long-term certainty for developers, investors, firms and residents. It is also important to identify and enable the integration of different types of infrastructure so that they can work together in a complementary manner, eg hospitals and transport, or urban growth areas and water services.

The Auckland governance reforms - still under way during publication of this document - provide an opportunity for the new Auckland Council to present a comprehensive and agreed vision for the shape of the city and the infrastructure it will need to deliver the vision. The vehicle for this is a regional spatial plan (incorporating a regional infrastructure investment plan). The value in a regional spatial plan is analogous to that of the National Infrastructure Plan: it offers a chance to facilitate the integrated planning of infrastructure investment; get the right infrastructure built in the right place at the right time; and provide greater long-term certainty for developers, investors and firms. Importantly, a regional spatial plan could also facilitate complementary infrastructure investment that allows local and central government to maximise returns on capital expenditure and deliver value for money.

If this tool proves a success, consideration might be given to applying it more widely across other regions in New Zealand. Government thinking on this is at an early stage and forms part of the phase two resource management reforms, as well as work under way implementing the Auckland governance reforms.

It is likely that effective alignment between central and local government will require, among other things:

• continued participation by appropriate central government agencies in developing and working with regional infrastructure and land use planning instruments, and acknowledgement of regional planning priorities in their own capital planning and asset management frameworks.
• acknowledgement within regional plans of central government’s priorities for New Zealand, and the strategic role that each region plays in the national economy, such as the functional connections between Auckland and other cities and regions (such as Hamilton and Tauranga) as well as overseas, and
• development and use of common data and planning assumptions at the regional and national levels.

Achieving the alignment between central and local government in infrastructure planning will go a long way to creating the kind of certainty that will both facilitate private investment and ensure maximum value-for-money out of public infrastructure investment in our cities and regions.

Transport funding and pricing

While there are immediate opportunities to improve key corridors in the roading network to provide better service levels at current and future traffic volumes, in the longer term building our way out of road congestion is unlikely to be an affordable or efficient strategy. As with any type of infrastructure investment, evidence of a capacity constraint does not automatically imply that more capacity should be built. With road transport, once a certain reasonable level of capacity is provided, the problems of limited land supply and environmental constraints point to the need for smarter solutions.

In the short term, the Government is committed to simplifying and improving the quality of the current Road User Charging system. For example, policies have been developed to allow the voluntary introduction of electronic distance measurement technology, which can be integrated with the purchase of RUC licences.

In the long term, an efficient level of use is most likely to be achieved when users pay the full price for the costs they generate. Current charges (particularly Fuel Excise Duty) are relatively unsophisticated and weakly targeted. For example, the charges don't discriminate on type of road or time of day.

Use of the transport system should, ideally, be based on more accurate price signals to enable users to make informed decisions about which corridor delivers the best outcomes for the cost. Once this occurs, current infrastructure will be used more efficiently and, where additional investment is required, those investing will have a greater degree of confidence in the value generated by their investment.

To this end the Government is starting to explore how pricing mechanisms in the transport system can be improved and how it might be possible to move towards new forms of charging and pricing that replace, rather than add to, the existing system. However, these would need to occur as technology allows. One of the advantages of the current charging system is its comparatively low transaction costs. Any new system would also need to be cost effective.