After most of a billion dollars and six years’ work, the Puhoi to Warkworth section of State Highway 1 has been warmly received by long-distance motorists no longer slowed down by small town traffic lights.
Where once cars would back bumper to bumper on a Sunday evening, now the road over the Mahurangi River and up Moir’s Hill is quiet.
Google Maps has already labelled it Old State Highway 1 – a once crucial artery between busy places, now the windier scenic option.
But though many drivers have waved goodbye to Windy Ridge and the briefly glimpsed Redwoods Treehouse for good, Auckland Transport is saying hello to Old State Highway 1.
The old route is in the process of being transferred to ownership by the regional transport agency, now that it’s no longer a designated state highway.
Speaking to councillors this week at the monthly transport and infrastructure committee, Auckland Transport chief executive Dean Kimpton seemed unsure if that was a blessing or a curse.
The 20km of road is a grand gift, but it’s a little bit like buying somebody a pet for Christmas. Inextricably tied to the gift itself is years of food and vet bills.
“Is there anything we can do about not receiving state highways at this time?” North Shore councillors Richard Hills asked Kimpton. “We’re obviously going to receive the one up north because of the new motorway … we are receiving that asset and all of its future opex, or can that be another state highway?”
As Kimpton understands it, the council has no choice but to receive.
And though State Highway 1 is just one example – one that somebody’s got to look after – it’s a situation emblematic of a rising tide that’s seen Auckland Transport struggling to keep its head above.
“There’s definitely an ongoing and quite pointed discussion around adding new significant infrastructure without a commensurate form of funding for the renewals and maintenance of it,” Kimpton told councillors. “It is your – our – significant challenge.”
Kimpton has warned councillors in the past of the increasing cost of roading renewals, with which funding models have failed to match pace.
It’s an issue Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown appeared aware of in his proposal for the next 10 years of council budget.
The top priority in his transport section includes the promise of fully funding the council’s share of road renewals at about $5.5 billion – but only if central government comes to the table.
“We need to start by looking after what we already have, including properly funding the renewal of our existing roads, cycleways, and busways,” Brown said.
$5.5b is nearly 40 percent of the total transport capital budget. Brown argued without keeping the roads in good order, further deterioration would only increase the cost of upkeep.
But it’s a conditional investment.
“We can only afford to fund renewals if we have access to a fair contribution from the National Land Transport Fund,” he said. “The government has underfunded road renewals in Auckland for years. They must fully fund their 51 percent share of this spend, and I will be lobbying the minister and Waka Kotahi hard to make sure this happens.”
Kimpton said the transport agency was very aligned with Auckland Council and the mayor’s office on strongly advocating the new government.
“Unless we take a transport for Auckland outcomes perspective, we will end up overcomplicating our ability to both govern and deliver,” he said. “So we are very committed to the Integrated Auckland Land Transport Plan … and at the executive level we want to see this Government get alignment over how this is funded and delivered.”
The financial feasibility of the roading network will only come further under the microscope as more and more are added.
And with the arrival of a National-led Government that campaigned on a road-heavy transport plan, it’s not a problem likely to go away anytime soon.
It’s further exacerbated by the weather. Auckland has recorded its wettest year since reporting began, and scientists predict high-intensity rainfall events will become more common in future.
This year, it’s meant roading upkeep has been a near Sisyphean task.
2,000 sites were affected by storm damage in the two severe weather events at the end of the summer.
AT chief engineer Murray Burt said 75 percent of these had been fixed up, but the 500 left were the most complex and difficult to solve.
Over the summer, the organisation plans to do 400km of road resurfacing and rehabilitation, 60km of footpath renewals and 40km of stormwater channel renewals.
“Water is the one element that causes the most damage to roads, and we’ve had a lot of it in the past year,” Burt said.
If there’s more water on the way in years to come, and more roads for them to damage, the bills are going to climb higher and higher.
Burt said the key way to get in front of that was through vigilant resurfacing
“The key way you protect the road, just like a coat of paint on your house, is to resurface with the right frequency,” he said.
“That’s been one of the problems with the constrained renewals budget. We haven’t been able to provide that waterproofed surface.”
Burt said resurfacing a road cost $10–$20 per square metre, but fixing a road after water had seeped in through the surface was more like $200–$400 per square metre.
“So the most important thing you can do is resurface frequently.”
Government needs to help fund Wellington as well. Wellington has decided on the program of Lambton Quay redevelopment, mode shift all around, and some intensification around major arteries. It is the government’s responsibility to help Wellington with the funding for this.