Story in NZH today about a route for the proposed new Auckland Harbour crossing - a bridge utilising Meola Reef for a good part of the way. It quotes the mayor as saying: “It goes halfway across the harbour, you put dirt on top of that and [then] you’ve got a short bridge that goes to Little Shoal Bay.”

The first part of that - using Meola Reef for support - IMO makes good sense. But then either NZH and/or the mayor seem to have faulty knowledge of the geography. Straight ahead of the northern end of the reef is Kauri Point - which would necessitate an 800m bridge.

Little Shoal Bay is a long way off in a NE direction - it’s 3.2km away. By comparison, the existing bridge is about 1km long.

The dotted lines on a photo of the proposed route point towards Kauri Point -  not to Little Shoal Bay. LSB is close to the existing motorway but requires a massively long bridge. Kauri Point is the closest landing but miles away from any existing motorway link-up, so who knows what they are thinking.

The mayor is promoting this route over a route that the government is likely to favour. But regardless of whether he’s thinking of Kauri Point or Little Shoal Bay for the northern landing, his plan seems doomed to failure.