Auckland on the move again in a new era

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland is entering a new motorway-building era. Work on Grafton Gully, Spaghetti Junction, the Upper Harbour Highway and the Mt Roskill extension of State Highway 20 should all start this summer.

A summer start on connecting State Highway 20 to State Highway 1 at the Manukau City end is also on the cards.

Transit is considering inviting road builders to start the $145 million project before the money becomes available in July next year.

Wayne McDonald, Transit's Auckland head, is excited at the prospect of having so many projects ready to go and at having the money from the national road funding agency, Transfund, to get on with the job.

Transfund has boosted its budget for new roads in Auckland this year to $177.5 million. This will rise to $215 million over the next five years.

Wayne McDonald says this means money is available to complete most of the main roading projects, subject to the Government allowing private tolls.

His optimism is tempered a little by Transfund chief executive Martin Gummer, who says the agency is waiting on the full picture to see what can proceed this summer.

But he can broadly see Transit's wishlist being fulfilled, provided the cost estimates remain stable.

Projects in this category include the first two stages of Grafton Gully and the Puhinui interchange (where work has started), fixing Spaghetti Junction, extending State Highway 20 through Mt Roskill, developing the Upper Harbour motorway, widening the motorway approach to the harbour bridge, taking State Highway 20 through Manukau and building the North Shore busway.

Mr Gummer says longer-term projects, such as extending State Highway 20 through Avondale and building the eastern highway, will depend on private-public partnerships and tolls.

Mr McDonald refuses to be drawn on Auckland and Manukau City's plan for the $460 million-plus eastern highway, except to say that it is not a state highway and has nothing to do with Transit.

Under Transfund rules, the eastern highway qualifies only for a 43 per cent Transfund contribution.

It would have to be turned over to Transit as a state highway project to qualify for full funding.

The councils plan to make the highway a toll road with private backing, but there could be a need for a large contribution from ratepayers.

Mr Gummer said the priority was to fix bottlenecks on State Highway 1 around Spaghetti Junction and the approaches to the harbour bridge and to develop an alternative corridor with an emphasis on the western ring road, or State Highway 20.

He said the eastern corridor and the western ring road were not in opposition, but the western corridor was in a position to be completed first.

"Auckland can reasonably say that it is in something of a catch-up mode. Over the past decade, a number of major projects have been funded around the rest of New Zealand.

"Probably every region has had one or more significant projects built in it over the past decade.

"During that time Auckland probably had only two or three significant projects. That did not keep pace with the transport pressure placed on the system."

Transit has 11 roading projects on the go in Auckland:

Spaghetti Junction

Work on fixing the bottleneck known as Spaghetti Junction in central Auckland is due to start today. The five-year project is an engineering and logistical nightmare which will make the multilayered roading network more complicated.

The project will provide motorway-to-motorway connections so it will be possible to drive from the Northwestern Motorway to the Northern Motorway and from Grafton Gully to the Northern Motorway. Another lane in each direction will be added to the Newmarket Viaduct.

Cost: $178 million.

Completion: date 2007.

City to harbour bridge

This is a test case of how far public bodies will go to reduce environmental damage from an inner-city motorway project.

Transit wants to widen the Victoria Park flyover to three lanes in each direction and have five lanes in each direction between the park and the harbour bridge.

Transfund will pay the above-ground cost of $70 million to $100 million but not the extra $100 million-plus needed for a partial or full tunnel under Victoria Park.

The Auckland City Council has turned down requests to help pay for a tunnel and Transit plans to ask Infrastructure Auckland to put its entire pool of $90 million for roading projects into a tunnel.

The St Marys Bay Association also wants Transit to sink the motorway in a trench along a straightened approach to the bridge.

Transit is delaying announcing a preferred option until it hears from Infrastructure Auckland.

Cost: $70 million-$290 million ($430 million for St Marys Bay Association option).

Completion: two to four years after construction starts.

Grafton Gully

Construction has started on the first two stages of this project, which will give direct access between the Northern Motorway and the port.

A new bridge is being built from Wellesley St to Grafton Rd, Stanley St is being upgraded and the dogleg intersection with The Strand will be removed.

Cost: $68 million.

Completion: May 2004.

Puhinui interchange

The intersection of Puhinui Rd and State Highway 20, a thoroughfare from South Auckland to the airport, is one of the busiest in Auckland. Transit is separating these two roads as part of the western ring road and to reduce congestion.

Cost: $20 million.

Completion: December 2003.

State Highway 20 to Manukau

Appeals on this project are almost complete, and Transit is exploring the idea of making a start in the summer even though money for it will not be available until next July.

A roadbuilder would carry the costs for six months and then be paid with interest.

The project involves building a 4km four-lane motorway from State Highway 1 at Manukau to the Puhinui interchange with interchanges at Lambie Drive and Nesdale Ave.

Cost: $126 million-$145 million.

Completion: 2004.

State Highway 20 Mt Roskill extension

Transit is confident the Environment Court will approve this project within the next month so tenders can be called for a summer start.

The 4km extension from Queenstown Rd to Richardson Rd will have interchanges at Hillsborough Rd and Dominion Rd, motorway overbridges at Hayr Rd and May Rd and dedicated pedestrian and cycleways.

Cost: $163m.

Completion: 2006.

State Highway 20 Avondale extension

This is the final link to complete the western ring road to the Northwestern Motorway.

It is also the most difficult, not least because it passes through Prime Minister Helen Clark's Mt Albert electorate, there are no designations and all three options pose problems. Two options involve going down Great North Rd to join the Northwestern Motorway at Waterview. The third option runs down Rosebank Rd to the motorway at Patiki Rd.

Transit has acknowledged there will be some tunnelling and the project is likely to be part-financed with tolls.

Cost: $190 million-$880 million.

Construction date: 2010-2015.

Upper Harbour motorway

The upper harbour corridor is to be the main east-west link between Waitakere and North Shore cities and part of a western ring route that will enable cars to bypass Auckland City.

Transfund last week approved the necessary money for construction of a second bridge across Auckland's upper harbour and 5km of motorway east from the bridge at Greenhithe to bypass the Upper Harbour Drive.

Funding has not yet been approved for a third stage, from the bridge to the Northwestern Motorway at Westgate.

Cost: $230 million-$258 million.

Completion: 2006/07

Waiouru Peninsula

Growth in employment at East Tamaki is predicted to double from 17,000 to 35,000 by 2011, so Transit and the Manukau City Council have been pushing for a new link on State Highway 1 between Otahuhu and East Tamaki, including an upgraded Otahuhu interchange.

This will take heavy traffic off suburban eastern roads but put more traffic on State Highway 1.

Cost: $72 million.

Completion: 2005/06

Orewa to Puhoi State Highway 1 extension

This project has become bogged down in appeals and politics.

Auckland mayors have dropped it down their list of priorities, preferring to concentrate on completing the metropolitan motorway network.

Their change in emphasis has upset the Rodney District Council.

Stage one of extending the motorway 19km from Albany to Orewa cost about the same as building stage two - 6km from Orewa to Puhoi but across some environmentally sensitive land.

Cost: $145m.

Completion: unknown.

North Shore Busway

As well as building roads for cars, Transit is building the 8km two-way road for buses alongside the Northern Motorway between Constellation Drive and Esmonde Rd. Part of this involves a new Esmonde Rd interchange at a cost of $32 million.

Cost: $205 million-$220 million (including $56 million for new bus stations being built by the North Shore City Council and other agencies).

Completion: 2008/09.

Further reading
Feature: Getting Auckland moving

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