‘Critical nation building’ transport projects don’t come cheap, just look at Australia

The Government’s enthusiasm for big transport projects revealed on Thursday has a similar look to the approach that seems to have worked well for Victorian Premier Dan Andrews.

The draft Government Policy Statement on land transport for the next three years proposes a 34% increase in spending on New Zealand projects to $20.8b.

It highlights a list of 14 “critical nation building transport priorities” that includes major highway initiatives, alongside big public transport projects.

In Victoria, the state government has a whole website, with constant updates on progress, called Victoria’s Big Build dedicated to its road and rail projects.

In a statement last year, the Victorian government put the cost of the programme at A$90b (NZ$97b), although it didn’t break that down into individual project costs, and it’s not clear how realistic that figure is. Some of the projects will take decades to complete, if they’re ever built.

Among the projects are twin 9km rail tunnels under central Melbourne, due to open in 2025, as well as a massive new road route that also includes a tunnel to the west of the central city area.

Removal of railway level crossings across Melbourne is also in the Big Build, which may not sound dramatic, but it’s a problem also beginning to take on major significance this side of the Tasman.

So much so that the removal and upgrading of level crossings in Auckland and Wellington is included in the Government’s 14 critical nation building transport priorities revealed on Thursday.

The statement doesn’t have anything more to say about level crossings but does show $1.7b for public transport infrastructure during the next three years, and $1.2b on upgrading and maintaining the rail network.

In Wairarapa, KiwiRail is proposing to close five crossings, with KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy saying having 30 level crossings in the region was “unnecessary”.

KiwiRail was “in conversation” with councils in Auckland and Wellington about reducing the number of level crossings, Reidy said, without specifying which ones might go.

Safety at level crossings is a big concern, but in Auckland so is the functioning of the transport network – keeping road traffic moving, and getting best-value out of the $5.5b Central Rail Link project.

Auckland Transport staff have told a community meeting in Mt Albert that barriers at rail crossings in the busiest locations were expected to be closed up to 45 minutes per hour during peak commute.

The city has 45 rail crossings, with those in Takanini, south Auckland, exercising the brains and thoughts of the Auckland Transport board in recent months.

An item at the board’s meeting in late May showed the agency is looking to remove four existing crossings in the area.

Two would be replaced with bridges for vehicles and other modes of transport, two would be replaced with walking and cycling bridges, and a bridge at a new location for vehicles and other modes would also be built.

The median cost estimate for those five projects is $437m, with a high estimate of $647m, of which $144m is associated with buying properties.

In the case of one of the vehicle bridges, some groups in the community are pushing for an underpass to be built instead.

Work is under way now on a business case that would confirm the detailed solutions, implementation staging, and cost for all level crossings across Auckland. That project is due late in 2023.

For an idea of what could be involved to do the job well, Melbourne could provide some useful indications. A concerted effort to get rid of level crossings in the city has been under way for nearly a decade.

The latest update of the programme in the Victorian capital aims to get rid of 110 crossings by 2030, with 72 gone so far.

It’s not cheap or easy, with major earthworks and construction required in some cases, and some billions of dollars spent so far, and more billions to go, but the result is a definite improvement in transport, along with gains in urban design and public amenities.

There have been concerns about value for money, apparent haste, qualms that political motivations may have been behind some of the crossings chosen for removal, and some local opposition, or debate about the proposed solution.

The Melbourne programme started in 2015 with a plan to remove 50 crossings. Another 25 crossings were added in 2025, 10 more in 2021, and 25 more in 2022. The project also includes building some new stations, and upgrading others.

The total cost of the project is not obvious, but a 2020 report from the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office said the estimated cost of the 75 crossing removals planned by 2018 was A$14.8b (NZ$16b).

Removing the level crossings involves separating the roadway from the rail track. That can be done by lowering the rail line into a trench, lifting the rail over the road, and lowering or raising the road without changing the rail corridor. In some cases, roads have been closed.

The work of removing the crossings has been divided up into numerous projects.

Looking more closely at one of those projects – removing nine level crossings in Melbourne’s southeast from Caulfield to Dandenong – shows how much work is involved, and the costs and benefits.

The cost of the project, which opened in mid-2018, has been widely reported as A$1.6b (NZ$1.7b). It involved elevating 6km of the railway line, and building five new stations.

According to Victoria’s Big Build, before the crossings were removed, barrier arms had been down for up to 87 minutes during each 2-hour morning peak.

Along with the transport improvements, the Caulfield to Dandenong project also resulted in 22.5ha of new community spaces and parks, and a 17km bicycle and pedestrian path.