Bid to stop highway handover doomed?

CONCERN: Clayton Mitchell.

A last-ditch attempt to halt the handing back of a major cross-city highway to Tauranga City Council ownership appears doomed to failure.

The legal notice gazetting the Turret Rd/15th Ave corridor as a local road has been passed and takes effect on July 1.

It means that half the estimated $60 million cost to widen the corridor will have to be met by ratepayers once the council agreed to the roadworks which includes a new bridge. The widening was not in the council's 2015-25 Long Term Plan although Mayor Stuart Crosby said it could be brought forward if needed.

There is widespread public concern the bridge will continue to be the pinch point when the underpass from Welcome Bay was completed in about three years time.

Harry Wilson, the New Zealand Transport Agency's director for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, confirmed the notice was gazetted on June 18 - 12 days after the council decided to challenge the agency on whether it had followed correct consultation procedures.

He told the Bay of Plenty Times he was absolutely confident that consultation had taken place. The most important element of the consultation that stretched back to 2002 had been the work that led up to last year's agreement with the council on the long-term strategy for Tauranga's roading network. It set out the hierarchy of highways through the city, future investments and how highways connected to local roads.

The strategy confirmed the ownership of Route K would transfer from the council to the agency at the same time as State Highway 2a through Turret Rd and 15th Ave reverted back to local ownership. Mr Wilson said the agency submitted the application to the Minister of Transport for Cabinet approval on May 29.

He said the agency had also been asked to pick up the council's $64 million debt on Route K. On the basis that the council was happy for SH2a to be revoked, the agency agreed to the declaration for Route K.

Mr Wilson said everything was fine until the letter arrived from the council asking for evidence of consultation on the revocation of SH2a. He said the council's letter coincided with the arrival of the first notice to gazette SH2a as a local road.

"They crossed in the mail."

He said the consent for the revocation was lodged with the Gazetting Office on June 16 and it was published on June 18.

Mr Crosby said it would be interesting to see what information the agency provided as evidence of consultation. He believed that consultation included the work on the roading classification framework.

He said it was one of the engagement processes that went back to 2002, before the Harbour Link was built. The council agreed to the network classification framework on August 18 last year, ending a process that lasted two years.

New Zealand First list MP Clayton Mitchell, of Tauranga, said he raised the issue at last week's meeting of Parliament's Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee.