KEY POINTS:
Transit NZ says it is unlikely to have a $150 million replacement for Auckland's seismically-questionable Newmarket Viaduct ready for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, but promises an extra motorway lane by then.
The agency's northern regional manager, Peter Spies, said last night that traffic would have access to four southbound lanes on a stronger new structure by 2011 as well as the viaduct's existing northbound capacity of three lanes.
That would give motorists the full "functionality" promised by a replacement viaduct, even if the three northbound lanes had to remain on the existing 1966 structure during the rugby extravaganza.
An early resolution of Environment Court appeals last year gave Transit hope of completing the entire project by 2011, and it gained approval from the Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee in September to use regionally-distributed fuel tax funds to pay the full cost.
Aside from World Cup considerations, Transit is keen to replace what it acknowledges is seismically the weakest link on Auckland's motorway network, with a new structure designed to withstand a magnitude of earthquake unlikely to occur more than once in 2500 years.
Mr Spies said there was debate among engineers about what size earthquake the existing structure could survive - a one-in-500 years event or just one-in-250.
Despite their earlier funding approval, regional committee members were alarmed yesterday by a request from Government agency Land Transport NZ for money to be reallocated to another large Auckland motorway project - the $265 million duplication of the Manukau Harbour crossing between Onehunga and Mangere.
That project, on which Mr Spies expects construction to start next month from the Mangere side of the harbour, was to have been funded entirely from the Government's national land transport fund.
But in a letter to the Auckland Regional Council seeking funding reallocation, Land Transport northern partnership manager Peter Kippenberger has pointed to "considerable cash flow pressures" on the national account.
These included cost rises in areas such as road policing, public transport operating subsidies and road maintenance.
Mr Kippenberger said that because substantive construction on the Manukau crossing was now planned to precede work on Newmarket's replacement viaduct, the regionally-distributed funds needed to be reallocated accordingly.
He emphasised it would simply be a budgetary transfer, and an even mix of regional and national funding would be available for Newmarket.
Although both funding sources pass through the Government, fuel-tax money is distributed to regions according to population size and allocated to specific projects with the approval of regional transport committees.
Despite Mr Kippenberger's assurance, committee member Tony Garnier of the Auckland Business Forum expressed concern that the Manukau project was not being funded from a $1 billion infrastructure bond facility which he said was promised by Finance Minister Michael Cullen in the 2006 budget.
The committee voted to defer a decision on Land Transport's request until next month, to allow time to investigate the Treasury's potential use of infrastructure bonds for the project.
Mr Spies told the Herald after the meeting that, regardless of how Land Transport ended up balancing the budget, Transit was fully-funded to build the duplicate crossing.
He was "extremely confident" it would be completed by mid-2011 - ready to carry tens of thousands of World Cup spectators between the airport and Auckland City.
He expected an alliance of firms building the $360 million toll motorway extension to Puhoi to provide a final cost estimate for the Newmarket project to Transit's board next month.
He said design work had continued unabated on Newmarket, and denied that project was being delayed by funding uncertainty.
