Ports of Auckland has renewed its efforts to extend the city’s port into the Waitemama Harbour with a scaled-back plan. Its fresh bid to extend Auckland’s port follows the sinking (pun intended) of last year’s plans to expand 283m into the harbour by a public backlash.
Ports’ Chief Executive Tony Gibson has conceded that last year’s plans were unacceptable and hopes that the revised version will foster a more harmonious relationship with Aucklanders. In marked contrast to its vilified predecessor which sought to expand waterfront operations from 77 to 99ha and 283m into the the harbour, the latest double proposal from the ports company seeks to handle a projected doubling in freight across the wharves.
The first option is centred on developing Bledisloe Wharf 135m into the harbour for a 5.5ha extension and maintaining Captain Cook Wharf exclusively for cargo. Option two involves expanding Bledisloe Wharf 179m into the harbour for a 6.6ha augmentation which would free up Captain Cook Wharf for public use. The latter option appears to be the more likely candidate for success given that polls have revealed that an overwhelming majority of Aucklanders favour the public being granted more access to wharf space.
The impetus for the submission of this bifurcated plan was the campaign launched against last year’s planned reclamation of the Waitemata Harbour. The huge public backlash with which that plan was met, not only sparked the Auckland Council to reconsider port expansion bids, but also to commission a study of the freight demands of the three upper North Island ports. The findings of this study, by Price Waterhouse Coopers, confirmed that Auckland would have to fill in more of its harbour if it wanted to open up more of its waterfront. The only alternative to such development was to limit the amount of cargo it handles and, as a consequence, lose business to Tauranga and Northland. All of this information would have informed Mr. Gibson & Co. when putting together the latest iteration of their proposal.
Mr. Gibson has tried to appease Aucklanders this time around by stating that his company intends to “make the port more efficient and double throughput without much expansion”. His company has a four-to-five year timetable within which to obtain resource consents and begin reclaiming more of the harbour to cope with the new generation of larger container ships.
Mayor of Auckland Len Brown has said he’s pleased that the Ports had listened to Aucklanders’ concerns and borne them in mind when creating this more sensible and balanced proposal. However, he stopped short of openly supporting either of the new proposals or expressing a preference, perhaps in an attempt to avoid displaying bias which could effect his standing with constituents.
Auckland is just one the many Southern Hemisphere ports to which Spratt ship, so naturally we will be watching how this story develops in order to tailor our operations accordingly and continue offering our loyal customers an exceptional shipping service to Auckland. To learn more about the vast reach of our shipping network click here
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