Auckland's rapid growth blamed for fuel crisis

Tuesday, 19 September 2017

Pipe line shut-down highlights fragility of Auckland's infrastructure.

The fuel crisis that has hit Auckland calls the resilience of key parts of the city's infrastructure into question says one university expert.

And Auckland's Chamber of Commerce is blaming the city's fuel crisis on a failure to manage the city's rapid growth.

Chamber chief executive Michael Barnett said the fuel leak was an example of the need for a management plan to take account of the Super City's ballooning population.

Demand at the Wiri fuel depot had grown 30 per cent since 2012, but capacity had not, Barnett said.

'We need to fix the latest issue with speed and urgency, but of equal importance, we need to accelerate decision making and provide infrastructure for today's population and its demands and provide for ongoing growth.'

* Auckland Airport: Locals deny kauri excavation led to jet fuel line damage

* List of flights cancelled due to Auckland Airport jet fuel supply shortage**

Greater Auckland spokesperson Matt Lowrie said the jet fuel leak was an example of how bottlenecks in infrastructure could cause massive disruption.

Lowrie said the city was similarly vulnerable when it came to transport.

'Building motorways through those pinch points is one of the worst things we could possibly do, because they can't handle the capacity,' he said.

'There are motorway breakdowns every day that can cause huge congestion.'

Lowrie said the city needed a strategic public transport network so that Aucklanders had alternatives.

'Any infrastructure can be quite easily crippled by disruption. The key is having other options available,' he said.

Professor Errol John Haarhoff from Auckland University's architecture and planning department, said the fuel crisis had called the resilience of the city's infrastructure into question.

'I find it somewhat surprising that a simple thing like a pipeline can bring an industry to its knees,' he said.

'All that needs to be done is to build sufficient [fuel] storage capacity at the airport. One or two months' supply of fuel would be all that's needed.'

'We have to stop living in the past, and get beyond an expectation that the scale of infrastructure needed to cope with our growth is good enough – it isn't.'