Tolling on the table for second Mt Vic tunnel
Wednesday, 19 June 2024
Tolling will be considered for the second Mt Victoria tunnel, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.
However Brown walked back comments made by Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop last week, who said that all Roads of National Significance would be tolled.
If the tunnel goes ahead according to the plans laid out by National before the election, a toll road would leave residents without a free route through Mt Victoria.
That’s because the existing tunnel would be used to carry two lanes of traffic towards the city, while a new tunnel would carry two lanes of traffic towards the airport.
Several options were being investigated by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), including a mega tunnel connecting the Terrace Tunnel to Kilbirnie and cutting an estimated 15 minutes off the journey from the airport to the city.
Brown’s office acknowledged that there had been some confusion about whether or not all Roads of National significance would be tolled.
Rather than tolling all 15 of the roads, which have cost estimates ranging from $250m to $2.3b, NZTA would be considering tolling as an option for all new roads. The decision to toll would lie with the transport agency, rather than the Government.
The Government would support “all recommendations by NZTA to toll roads” and strongly supported tolling as a way to fund all of its roading projects, Brown said.
“The Government is committed to a second Mt Victoria tunnel and has indicated that this project will be a Road of National Significance.
“This means that, should NZTA recommend it, the Government will support the use of tolls to help pay for its construction.”
The most recent cost estimates for the second tunnel was $2.2b.
One of the considerations that NZTA would take into account, according to its Tolling Policy, is whether “there is a feasible untolled alternative route available for use”.
Local councillor Sarah Free pointed out that there were few alternatives to using the Mt Victoria tunnel – routes like going around the bays or over the hill were not built to handle traffic.
She supported another connection through Mt Victoria but “would be very surprised” if it was a toll road.
The Mt Victoria tunnel was such an important route through the city that she didn’t view an increase to its capacity as a new route. Instead it was something that should have been done years ago.
“I don’t think [tolling] would be acceptable,” Free said.
Regional councillor Thomas Nash said there were serious equity concerns if the Government were “slapping a toll on the road with no alternative”.
“If you’re a wealthy person, a toll might be irritating but you can afford it. But if you’re on low income, your costs are going up and this is yet another cost.
“The problem is if you take away the only way for people to get through Mount Victoria, you’re not giving people another option.”
Previously published research stated that tolls typically reduced the benefits of roads and hence the underlying economic merits of projects because some people who might otherwise use a road would be put off by a toll, meaning fewer drivers would benefit from a new road. The downsides of tolls are not referenced in a more recent statement on tolling on the NZTA’s website, which instead sets out only the benefits of tolling.
NZTA said the business-cost-ratios for state highway and local-road improvements made between July 2021 and May of this year averaged 1.2, weighted by the money spent on each project.
Funding the second Mt Victoria tunnel was described by Brown and Bishop as a “key commitment” from the Government, at the time that Let’s Get Wellington Moving dissolved at the end of last year.