KEY POINTS:
Transport Minister Annette King is looking forward to passing through an enlarged gateway to Auckland to watch the All Blacks secure the Rugby World Cup.
She said yesterday, while launching a $230 million project to duplicate the Manukau Harbour crossing and widen its motorway approaches, that the finished product would help to show off Auckland to the world during the 2011 rugby tournament.
"People from all over the world will be here to watch the All Blacks win, and this crossing is going to play a large part in showcasing Auckland as the vibrant city that it is, and a place that's easy to get around," the minister told a dawn gathering at the project office of Transit NZ and its construction alliance partners, after a Maori blessing of the site.
"I wish you well in ensuring this one is ready so I can come back and travel over it and watch the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup - I hope they are listening."
Although visitors arriving at the airport for the rugby will cross the existing bridge to reach Auckland, the completed project will offer them the full run of its four lanes plus a bus shoulder lane, leaving the new structure exclusively for southbound traffic.
An extra traffic lane and bus shoulder will also be added to each carriageway of the Southwestern Motorway between Walmsley Rd in Mangere and Queenstown Rd in Hillsborough.
The new bridge will virtually be a replica of the existing structure, running over seven sets of piers on its eastern side, which will be made strong enough to support a possible airport rail link beneath the motorway crossing.
Despite initial fears that the project might not be ready in time for the rugby cup, Transit now aims to complete it with at least six months to spare - by March, 2011.
Transit expects the two bridges to carry about 160,000 vehicles a day by 2021, almost twice the existing traffic count on the frequently-congested crossing, which the Auckland Regional Council want to augment with rail links to the airport.
Ms King acknowledged there remained some aspects of the project to be resolved between Transit and Onehunga community groups, which are pushing for an 11-hectare reclamation of their foreshore, including four new beaches to make up for the loss of natural coastline when the existing motorway was built in the 1970s.
"But I'm sure the parties will continue to work together to ensure the best way to integrate the project into the urban landscape," she said.
Transit, which dropped plans to build a large new motorway interchange at Onehunga in a bid to avoid hold-ups in the Environment Court, has yet to submit an outline plan of works to Auckland City Council for the northern end of the project. But project manager John Burden of Fletcher Construction said the main thrust between now and September would be driving foundation piles 30 metres into the Manukau Harbour bed and then building the new bridge's supporting piers on top of these.
That required construction of a temporary pier extending about 400m across the harbour from the Mangere foreshore, for which two large cranes were already in place.
"The jetty will go most of the way across the harbour - people will think it's a bridge," Mr Burden said.
Pile-driving would also start soon for a replacement bridge to carry Rimu Rd on the Mangere side of the harbour over a widened motorway.
By the time the second harbour bridge is completed, other parts of the western ring route will be in place to carry motorway traffic all the way from central Manukau to Sandringham Rd in Wesley.
That will still leave the proposed $1.89 billion tunnelled motorway through Waterview as the final piece of the 48km ring route, prompting a plea by Ms King for support for a regional fuel tax which the Government hopes will help to pay for it as well as for rail electrification.
