Watch: Government orders new business case for Auckland harbour crossing

Author: Adam Pearse,
Publish Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2026, 2:43pm

The Government is set to outline its progress on a second Auckland Harbour crossing proposal.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Transport Minister Chris Bishop are expected to front a post-Cabinet press conference at 3pm to announce the Government’s latest decisions regarding a second crossing.

A livestream of the press conference will be played at the top of this article.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has long opposed a second crossing alongside the existing bridge, telling Herald NOW in May he believed Auckland Council must be involved in the Government’s decision.

Brown has advocated for the crossing to be built over Meola Reef, a partially submerged rocky lava flow extending into Waitematā Harbour, but Bishop has said that option was “not currently on the table”.

Brown cited the recently signed Auckland City Deal, the first such partnership between local and central Government requiring the two to co-ordinate on issues such as infrastructure, housing, transport and economic development.

“The Herald reported about biparty [sic], well, we’re one of the parties and this is my city. I understand bridges better than professors of bridges,” Brown told Herald NOW host Ryan Bridge.

“We’ve got a 30-year plan that we’re laying out what we’re doing.

“We’re not just going to plonk another bridge next door to the existing one. We’re going to look at sensible things which we can afford that make the city run better.”

In May, Bishop said Auckland needed to advance plans for the additional crossing now that the 67-year-old bridge is “showing its age”.

He noted “a considerable amount of work” would then be needed around funding the crossing, and expressed his desire to reach an agreement with other political parties.

“We will want to take a bipartisan approach to it and act in the national interest, because what’s important is that the public have certainty around exactly what we’re doing for the future,” Bishop said.

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.