Options revealed for future of Auckland’s downtown port

The Port Future Study group has narrowed the 50-year plus plan for Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour port down three options for freight and cruise ships.

They are:

• constraining the port to its existing footprint;

• enabling growth of the port at its existing location;

• continuing at the Waitemata site in the short- to mid-term but in the mid- to long-term moving the port to a new location. The locations being investigated are Manukau Harbour, Firth of Thames, within the Auckland region and Muriwai.

The study’s consensus working group chairman Dr Rick Boven, says the three options are subject to further assessment.

“All of the shortlist options have complex challenges and implications. Each option continues to be assessed and is now progressing to a detailed cost-benefit analysis. There is still analytic work to be done”, Dr Boven says.

He says the important next steps are to get feedback from the study’s larger reference group, complete the cost-benefit analysis of remaining options and test the assumptions of that analysis by peer review.

"Once we complete further analysis on the shortlist of options, we will have a clearer picture of how each option stacks up on costs and wider economic effects. Some options are likely to be cost prohibitive”, Dr Boven says.

The consensus working group will consider the consultants’ findings as they continue to formulate their recommendations for a long-term strategy to accommodate future freight and cruise demand.  

“Auckland is on a steep growth trajectory, with an expected population of at least 2.6 million and the potential quadrupling of freight trade in the next 50 years.

“The city will need a strategy to ensure freight can flow for continued trade and prosperity,” Dr Boven says.

The purpose of the Port Future Study is to provide recommendations to Auckland Council on a strategy to accommodate Auckland’s long-term future trade and cruise activities across the next 50 or more years.

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