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The cost of upgrading facilities on Mt Eden (Maungawhau) has blown out from $6 million to between $12 million and $29 million - and the ratepayer pain may not end there.
Preliminary estimates show a new visitors' centre and electric vehicles to the summit could lose about $2.25 million a year, which ratepayers would have to pay for.
The Auckland City Council is starting public consultation in September on options for a visitors' centre and electric vehicles from about halfway up the mountain. This follows overwhelming support last year to ban coaches and cars from the summit.
Maungawhau is the third cost blowout in as many weeks under the watch of Mayor Dick Hubbard and chief executive David Rankin.
An upgrade of the Greenlane intersection with the Southern Motorway has more than doubled from $12 million to $26 million and the cost of five central-city upgrades, including Queen St, has risen by $17 million.
Mr Hubbard yesterday pledged to press on with Maungawhau, which last month he told the Herald would start this summer and cost $6 million.
The project is not due to start until 2009 at the earliest and a council report last week said it was now estimated to cost between $12 million and $17 million. Under a worst-case scenario it could cost $29 million.
There are two main reasons for the blowout. The first is the decision to investigate two sites for a new visitors' centre costing up to $8.7 million in addition to plans to upgrade Langton's tea kiosk for $2.9 million.
The second reason is that the options for transport to the summit include a rubber-wheeled electric train costing $3.17 million and four-person, electronically guided pods on a concrete channel costing $14.9 million.
Other options for a gondola and monorail were ruled out on visual grounds.
Officers have recommend the cheaper train option, saying the pod option included largely untested technology and was more costly.
The council has used seven consultants to come up with the options and another consultant, Ascari Partners, to provide financial, visitor-demand and governance advice.
Arts, community and recreation general manager Dr Jill McPherson said the council had paid project managers Boffa Miskell $195,261 to date and the company had hired the other six consultants. The council had paid $72,500 since January to Ascari.
It was responsible and prudent as one of the guardians of Maungawhau to pay for expert opinion, she said.
Mayor Hubbard, who said the Maungawhau makeover was one of his high-priority projects, yesterday said he had "not gone through the detail" of the report outlining the cost blowout.
He believed the new facilities would generate revenue and was unaware of potential annual losses of up to $1.25 million at the visitors' centre and $1 million for transport.
A council report said tour operators had said the extra time to complete a tour of the summit could have a major impact on the 800,000 visitors coming by bus. A downturn could result in ratepayers subsidising the transport and visitors' centre.
Eden-Albert councillor Glenda Fryer said the visitors' centre could broaden its focus from Maungawhau to a wider story about Auckland's volcanoes, Maori history and culture.
"Those are the sorts of questions people will be pondering when they decide how big or not the centre will be," she said. "If the vision is only looking at Maungawhau then they will probably prefer the Langton's site."
