Garth Falconer: Reset Urban Design architect proposes new six-lane ‘Waitematā Bridge’ crossing for Auckland

As the debate over a second Auckland harbour crossing continues, one architect has proposed an alternative solution. 

Reset co-director Garth Falconer has proposed a new six-lane ‘Waitematā Bridge’ positioned 500m from the Auckland Harbour Bridge, costing under $2.5 billion.

Falconer says he's discussed this idea with Auckland mayor Wayne Brown - and he's open to additional crossings. 

"We've had a good discussion and he's interested in looking at multiple crossings and looking at opportunities for urban regeneration." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Auckland Harbor's Bridge. Gee. Speaking of things that just carry on,
We've got another segment in this particular debate about Auckland's
Harbor Bridge, another proposal, this time to rival the Mayor's
idea of building over Meola Reef. This time it's a
new six lane bridge right next to the existing Harbor Bridge,
which would allow one bridge to take the traffic going
north and then the other bridge to take the traffic

(00:21):
going south. Now, the man behind this is the architect
who actually thought up Skypath, Garth Faulkner. Hey, Garth, Hello,
I'm very well. Thank you. I've been told you've actually
met with the mayor Wayne Brown on this. What's he said, it's.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's had a good discussion and he's been interested in
looking at multiple crossing options and looking at opportunity for
urban regeneration and looking at other options rather than an
expensive tunnel.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
What she said about your version of what you want
to do, because he's already got one.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
He's floated this idea of the Meolder Reef, and he
seems quite keen on that. We have generated a third
bridge octum what we call them the thawsway. After the discussion,
so he hasn't really seen that, but he's seen our
way to Matar Bridge, which is this graceful curving structure

(01:22):
to the west of the Auckland Harbor Bridge.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
And did you convince him that it was better than
his Meola Reef version.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I think he feels that it would be better for
a bridge to be away from the central city choke
point based on the number of vehicles going through that
passage that aren't actually aiming to stop on the central city.

(01:51):
He has, he has, but I think overall the priority
has to has to land for ly Worth, providing some
support for the Auckland Harbor Bridge, which is pretty much
maxed out at the moment in terms of its numbers
and its load, and also it's susceptible to extreme weather events.

(02:14):
So I think we've really got to focus on that
first and then longer term look at another bridge further
down the harbor. And one of the things we talked
about with Meyor Brown was San Francisco, which is a
similar city divided by a large water body. It's got
seven bridges and one of them make the San Mateo

(02:34):
Haywood Bridges, eleven columbuses long, and they connect communities and
they've connected motorway systems, and they've added up to new
areas of development for San Francisco, which basically now covers
the entire base, So very similar prece of it.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Okay, because the problem I have with you one, I mean,
I love the idea, but the problem is exactly what
Wayne Brown has identified, which is you are stillunneling all
the cars up State Highway one. Like if you're coming
from the south, all of them still have to go
up to exactly the same point, have to go on
one bridge or the other, and then they have to
join up again and go down the existing motorway again.
So it's sort of like fixing one problem being the

(03:14):
harbor crossing, but it's not really fixing the congestion on
either side, is it.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, what it does under this proposal there will be
dedicated public transport lanes which at the moment they are
intended for buses, which are more affection to moving people,
and that's the area of growth that we can really
lean to, that to that choke point at the moment.
But also we can open up the two eastern lanes,

(03:40):
which about eight meters wide for the deestrian walking and cycling,
which could take you to start off with about five percent
of all movements across the bridge at the moment, so
it would it would ease that congestion straight away, but
also add resilience.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Okay, Garth, thank you. I really appreciate you talking us
through this. Garth Faulkner, who's the director of Reset Urban
Design and the guy who actually thought up the skypath.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
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Speaker 1 (04:11):
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