KEY POINTS:
A bold engineering project that will slice 30 minutes off the Auckland-Wellington road trip has finally reached the stage where resource consents can be sought - and it could be completed by 2010.
Since the late 1960s, the East Taupo Arterial Highway has been promoted as a must for Taupo's growth to take heavy traffic away from the lakefront and town centre.
Taupo Mayor Clayton Stent said yesterday that if the district council received a favourable hearing for its consent bid, tenders for construction of the $97 million project could be called in the second half of this year.
The 15km bypass of the town was a challenging project.
"The route runs across some difficult terrain, through major gullies and an active geothermal area, with a new bridge crossing of the Waikato River."
The highway will cut journey times for traffic heading north and south of Taupo and those who wanted to link with the Napier-Taupo Road - State Highway 5. For motorists coming from the north and Rotorua, the bypass will start at the T-junction where they currently turn right and pass the Wairakei geothermal power station, the hotel and golf courses, busy intersections to residential areas and eventually enter Taupo town centre by a narrow bridge over the river.
Instead, motorists will go straight ahead at the T-junction and across the river on a bridge that will lead into a cut in the south bank.
The highway will then skirt to the east of the Taupo urban area, with feeder roads into town at Centennial Drive, Broadlands Rd and to State Highway 5 to Napier, rejoining State Highway 1 south of the airport.
Mr Stent said the design of the highway had to take into account a range of environmental challenges which considerably increased costs.
Tangata whenua had been consulted about the bridge and it would be a low-profile design to lessen its impact.
The major land owner affected is state-owned farmer Landcorp and agreement has been reached for the sale of land in the highway's path. The road must also cross a major geothermal field and Contact Energy has been consulted about reducing the road's impact on its operations. The project's cost was given as $27 million until February last year, when $70 million was added because of increasing construction costs.
It is a joint project between Taupo District Council and Transit New Zealand. The council will pay for construction stages one to three, from the airport to Centennial Drive, which is expected to cost $43 million.
Transit NZ will pay the $54 million stage four, which includes the bridge.
Once resource consents are granted by Environment Waikato, the council and Transit NZ will apply for funding from Land Transport NZ.
Transit NZ's works programme has the project being completed by 2010.
Road planners believe the bypass will siphon at least 10,000 of the 29,000 vehicles a day that use the main road along the lakefront.
Taupo Chamber of Commerce chairman Warren Kettlewell said: "The arterial is intended for people who are not planning to take in Taupo and I'm sure anyone wanting to stop here will still do so.
"It's an opportune time to remove the big rigs and cattle trucks rumbling down the lakefront road."
Automobile Association Bay of Plenty district chairman Peter Hawley said: "I think most motorists would say the sooner the better. The town is a bottleneck with a long length of restricted speed and friction from side traffic."
