With Skypath looking dead in the water, some of the $240 million set aside for it in ATAP should be redirected towards detailed design, planning and other preparatory work for a second harbour crossing.

“It’s been clear for a while that Skypath wasn’t going to get off the ground because of structural issues with the harbour bridge,” National’s Transport spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says.

“The Government received a business case in October telling it that a second harbour crossing should be the priority, yet Transport Minister Michael Wood didn’t think it was worthy of being funded as part of Auckland’s transport plan announced 10 days ago.

“It is now crystal clear that in order to have a decent walking and cycling connection across the Waitematā Harbour, a second harbour crossing will be needed.

“The Labour Government needs to get its priorities straight. We’re fast approaching a situation where traffic will need to be restricted on the Auckland Harbour Bridge because of its structural issues. We need to get ahead of this problem.

“We saw last year how one crash on the harbour bridge can grind our largest city to a halt. Aucklanders deserve better than that for all the petrol tax they are paying this Government.

“The idea of worsening congestion by converting traffic lanes on the bridge into cycle lanes is a bit nutty and shows how ideological this Government’s transport policy has become.”