Electric barges to get cars off Auckland port?

Around 500 cars a day could be moved off the Port of Auckland to Highbrook on electric barges under a plan currently being studied.

The Weekend Herald today reported details of the plan, being worked on by mayor Phil Goff and port chief executive Tony Gibson on a submission by transport company PTS Group.

There has been a long debate over wants by some members of the community to move vehicles off the wharf, enabling the wharf space to be put into public use.

Under the plan, up to 250 vehicles could be loaded onto the electric barge, which would take two trips a day. It would travel up the Tamaki Estuary to PTS Group’s Highbrook yard.

The remaining vehicles would be stored in the new five-storey parking structure  under construction.

Highbrook is closer to many of the compliance workshops and distribution centres for vehicles. POAL estimates it would remove 100 truck journeys from the city centre each day.

Gibson welcomes the idea.

“We have been looking at barging as an option, so we are pleased to have the mayor’s backing to take this investigation to the next stage,” Gibson told the Herald.

Goff notes the plan would take investment.

“I think the really exciting idea is to barge the cars off the wharf and we know that can be done. We know there are sites they can be barged to,” Goff says.

“That requires some level of investment in various things, dredging and so on.

“But what it would do is it would enable us potentially to get the cars off the wharf on the day they arrive. So you’ve got a much faster throughput.”