The potential economic benefits of Port Otago and Dynes Transports’ jointly proposed Southern Link Inland Port were made clear last week at an overview conference attended by the expert panel considering the project.
A summary of the project application, which is progressing through the fast-track approvals process, was presented to the panel at the conference held at Port Chalmers.
In her economic assessment, Savvy Consulting director Natalie Hampson said the inland port would deliver ‘‘significant regional benefits’’ that could also materialise nationally given the importance of the dairy and meat processing sectors to the New Zealand economy.
The 10-year construction period was estimated to generate up to $191.3m in GDP and create or sustain up to 1489 fulltime equivalent jobs across a range of sectors.
Once fully developed and operational, the inland port was expected to directly create 104 additional jobs in the short-medium term.
The Southern Link Inland Port proposes a new rail siding to enable loading, unloading and operation of a rail freight shuttle service to Port Chalmers, about 80,000sq m of warehousing, a 5ha container depot facility and an up to 5ha container terminal, all to enhance the capacity, efficiency and resilience of the Dunedin and wider Otago freight network.
Last year, it was announced the project would receive a loan of up to $8.2m from the government’s Regional Infrastructure Fund to develop the rail siding connection.
The economic assessment said new container trade was expected to start being generated within stages two and three of the project’s three-stage development timeframe.
‘‘The inland port will significantly improve the utilisation of KiwiRail assets, with an estimated initial uplift of 15,000 containers ... on the line between Mosgiel and Port Chalmers.’’
There was foreseeable projected growth to 25,000 to 40,000 containers.
The shift to rail was estimated to initially take 15,000 one-way heavy vehicle movements off the streets and state highways within urban Dunedin each year, 30,000 including return journeys, with capacity for this to increase over time.
This could create ‘‘significant productivity and efficiency benefits for import and export supply chains’’ which would both save time and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The inland port itself would significantly improve the resilience of Port Chalmers’ existing infrastructure and the competitiveness of Port Otago within the South Island container trade market.
This could mean a more efficient distribution of import container activity across South Island ports, attracting Otago-destined imports away from Lyttelton to Port Chalmers, along with a potentially greater market share of dairy product and meat exports passing through Port Chalmers.
‘‘It is likely that the inland port will help promote the southern South Island as an efficient location for new import and export manufacturing investment.’’
The inland port could provide for long-term, sustainable growth of container imports and export in the South ‘‘that is not considered possible under the status quo’’, the assessment said.
‘‘It will contribute to increased GDP and employment in Dunedin City over the long-term and has the potential to stimulate more value added economic activity.’’
