Auckland's mayor says he'll pay for a harbour crossing study himself if councillors won't
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has suggested using his own mayoral fund to pay for a study into a new harbour crossing at Meola Reef, if councillors won't agree to cover the cost.
The Meola Reef option, which Brown has backed, will only be included in the government's planning for a second harbour crossing if Auckland Council pays half the cost of the study. The study is expected to cost $1 million in total, with taxpayers and the council each paying $500,000. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has said the Meola Reef portion would be capped at $1 million. RNZ NZ Herald
Speaking to Checkpoint on Tuesday, Brown said it would be good to have councillors on board, but that he has his own budget and usually gets agreement on most things. His comments came after two North Shore councillors, Richard Hills and John Gillon, said they would not support funding the Meola Reef study. RNZ
Transport Minister Chris Bishop announced on Monday that the government is ordering a detailed business case for a second Auckland harbour crossing. A business case is a thorough report that looks at what to build, how much it would cost, and how to pay for it before any construction starts. The business case will look again at a bridge across Meola Reef near Point Chevalier, which Brown has pushed for. Bishop defended the study on Morning Report on Tuesday, saying earlier reports had answered why another crossing was needed, and this new work would answer how to do it. Cabinet would be ready in 2027 to decide what to build and how to pay for it, Bishop said. RNZ
Getting to this point has been slow and costly. More than $106 million has been spent on reports about possible new harbour crossings, and there is still no plan for what to build. In late 2022, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi asked experts to look at options and how sturdy the existing Auckland Harbour Bridge is. In October 2024, the government told NZTA to study the best bridge and tunnel options in detail. Both were east of the existing bridge, and those were the only two considered. A report finished in May went to the NZTA board, which picked a tunnel as its preferred choice. RNZ
Brown has argued the tunnel option does not make sense and would "connect a traffic jam with a traffic jam." He has previously said a new bridge would be a "helluva lot" cheaper than a tunnel. Labour's plan for a second crossing, which included rail and road tunnels, was estimated at more than $45 billion. RNZ RNZ
A July 2025 NZTA briefing on the Meola Reef option, released under the Official Information Act, showed it has been studied several times since the 1990s. NZTA ruled it out because of concerns about how well it would hold up, public transport reliability, severe environmental and community impacts, and poor ground conditions under Meola Reef. RNZ
Bishop also said the government had received a proposal from an overseas group to upgrade the existing Auckland Harbour Bridge. Officials have recommended this be looked at as part of the business case. RNZ
Winston Peters criticised the Cabinet decision to fund the business case, even though he is part of the Cabinet that made that decision. Labour leader Chris Hipkins said that if Labour were elected in November, it would support the business case continuing. Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said the government and Auckland Council would split the $1 million cost to check whether the Meola Reef option is workable. RNZ NZ Herald
The broader context here is one of competing pressures. A mayor is determined to keep alive an option that NZTA has repeatedly dismissed. A coalition government is dealing with internal disagreement from NZ First over the Cabinet decision. And an election in November could see Labour inherit whatever the business case produces. The $1 million study cost is small compared with the $106 million already spent, but the political effort being spent on Meola Reef is harder to measure. Brown's willingness to go around the council using his mayoral fund, if needed, shows how far he is prepared to go to keep the option alive. The question for councillors is whether a mayor using his own budget to fund a study that NZTA has already ruled out on technical, environmental and practical grounds actually strengthens or weakens the case for including Meola Reef at all.
