North Port

20230525 

2016-04-04 Grow Northland Rail meeting

The proposed route for the rail connection  between the North Auckland railway Line at Oakleigh ( on State Highway One ) and NorthPort at

Marsden Bay at the entrance to Whangarei Harbour

Northland inland port/distribution hub  Pre-feasibility study

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NEWS STORIES ( December 3, 2012 )

Port poised for growth

Have your say »

http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/news/port-poised-for-growth/1643810/

ROOM TO STRETCH: An aerial view of Northport, the deep-water port at the mouth of Whangarei Harbour.

ROOM TO STRETCH: An aerial view of Northport, the deep-water port at the mouth of Whangarei Harbour. SUPPLIED

With a deep-water port and bigger scope for expansion, Northland is poised to handle more shipping containers than anywhere in the country in the next 30 years.

A technical study on freight demands of the three North Island ports of Whangarei, Auckland and Tauranga in the next three decades has signalled that Northland would pick up cargo from other bigger ports if they did not open up more of their waterfront.

However, economic growth, freight costs and limited storage facilities would inhibit Northport at Port Marsden unless significant investment was made to cater for the demand. While further infrastructure required resource consents, the study said there were fewer impediments to obtaining them at Northport than at the Ports of Auckland.

Also, Whangarei and Tauranga are not under the same land transport congestion pressures as the biggest city in New Zealand.

Most of the exports through Northport are wood products and fuel.

Further reclamation or use of adjacent land owned by Northland Port Corporation to increase storage at Northport was one of the options put forward as part of the study.

"Northport could establish a container terminal, and progressively take over all of POA's [Ports of Auckland] container operations. We are forecasting that Northport's trade task will grow by 33 per cent by 2041," the study says.

"To accommodate this growth with its current storage land, Northport would need to increase its storage [use] by the same amount. Alternatively, Northport has 14 hectares of land that is not currently in use that it could make available for storage.

"If it developed this land, Northport would not need to increase storage utilisation in order to accommodate our projected growth."

The Northland Regional Council and Whangarei District Council have indicated more investigative work was needed before future plans for expansion were hatched.

The regional council's growth infrastructure manager, Vaughan Cooper, and the district council's group manager district living, Paul Dell, recommended a joint workshop be held with the study's author PwC and all four Northland territorial authorities.

The workshop is to look at incremental development of infrastructure and capacity at Northport.

They noted that while the report touched on supply chains, it did not provide any detailed analysis into different options and potential costs.

Both councils will discuss findings of the new study in a joint meeting on December 6.

20120307

 Listen to this audio from Radio NZ National's Nine to Noon program from 09:05

The call for Auckland's port to be moved north

Mike Daniel, Former chairman of Northland Port Corporation;

Greg McKeown, Heart of the City consultant and a former Chairman of the Auckland City Council's Transport Committee;

and Don Braid, managing director of logistics firm Mainfreight.

20120306 from the Northern Advocate Newpaper

Northland port upgrade a win-win, leaders say

Rosemary Roberts | Tuesday, March 6, 2012 9:38

IMAGINE Auckland developing Northland Port as a replacement port

for the super-city, financing the work from the sale of the $1 billion of  prime

waterfront land owned by Ports of Auckland.

The scenario would see Ports of Auckland (POA) invest in Northland

Port by spending about a third of the proceeds on upgrading the railway

between Auckland and Whangarei, building the rail link out to Marsden Pt

and transferring all of Auckland's waterfront container handling

infrastructure to Northland Port....  ( click on the title to read the rest of the article / or e-mail us at saveourrailnorthland@gmail.com if it's not available) 

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20120304 By Brian Rudman in the New Zealand Herald

Impossible to get public transport needs past capital's road-builders

...... - "The other report is on the future of rail from Auckland to Northland, the long-neglected and much cheaper iron highway rival to the $1.5 billion "holiday highway" through Puhoi that this Government is busting a gut to build.

With the debate raging over the future expansion plans for the commercial Auckland port, the deepwater port at Marsden Point is regarded by many as a natural partner to share the growing freight load predicted for the congested Auckland site.

But to be a feasible option, it needs funding for a 20km rail line from the port to the main trunk line. All the consents are in place and the land needed is close to being secured. All that's missing is $120 million to construct the line.

Then there's the neglected state of the North Auckland Line from Auckland to Whangarei to rejuvenate.

KiwiRail earns $8 million to $9 million a year from it in its present dilapidated state, which covers the cost of train operations but not the $3 million to $5 million cost of infrastructure maintenance.

In fact, the line is so clapped out it takes five hours for a train to cover the 165km trip. In addition, six of the 13 tunnels provide insufficient clearance for modern containers.

( click on the title to read the rest of the article / or e-mail us at saveourrailnorthland@gmail.com if it's not available) 

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First Bid for Marsden Point as a major container port back in the 1960s. 

Letter to the Editor - Bream Bay News - 20160727 

By Roy Vaughan - Mangawhai ( ex NZ Herald Maritime and Pacific Affairs Reporter )

While the debate on Marsden Point as a container port to replace Auckland continues, its worth noting that back in the late1960s the old Northland Harbour Board

made its first bid for the business and, in the process , produced one of the most detailed and well researched documents ever to back up its claims

All the major ports Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Port Chalmers wanted a piece of the action but  New Zealand Government backed study, The Moylneaux Report came up with a report that said one container ports could do the job and, coincidentally, it co-incided with the Northland study.

The British Conference shipping lines produced its own report ‘’Towards Containers for New Zealand’ suggesting two ports, Auckland and Wellington.

Politics not transport economics ruled the day and New. Zealand has ended up with ; no less than 5 container ports Tauranga being a late comer and now one of the largest ports in the country.

Recent debate on the topic has rightfully focused on upgrading the Northland rail link and creating a link to Marsden point, but while this may be key, the original Northland Harbour Board report proposed a coastal container transport system to service the major centers.

Road and rail were among the options as well as coastal shipping, though its thoughts on a tug and barge system were somewhat off the beam .

The container traffic has grown so much and continues to grow to the extent that both Auckland and Tauranga are near capacity and some expensive and environmentally sensitive decisions may have to be made soon.

History will probably show that if Marsden Point had been made the container port about 50 years ago it could have saved the country millions in freight costs

The Northland Harbour Board had much of the gear and expertise in handling this new generation of large container ships with its own large versatile modern tugs for docking huge supertankers and staff familiar with large ship movements.

The necessary space for container storage was on hand and that extensive piece of real estate is still available for development.

 The harbour is deep enough and there are no major environmental or space usage arguments to be sorted as they have to be at Auckland and also, to some extent, at Tauranga for any future development

The anti container port lobby tends to promote the myth that building four lanes of motorway from Puhoi to Whangarei is cheaper than upgrading the existing rail track, despite the fact that the motorway extensions would have to include at least three very expensive new road runners plus, viaducts and plenty of on and off ramps.

In many cases coastal container ships could handle the coastal traffic far better than road or rail.

The Northland Port company has taken a modest step forward by installing its first container crane for a coastal service  to Tauranga!

Roy Vaughan

Mangawhai

http://www.breambaynews.co.nz/pdf/28-7-2016.pdf