Auckland residents insist motorway must go underground

Almost 800 neighbours of a proposed $1 billion motorway from Owairaka to Waterview - part of Auckland's western ring route - have signed a petition demanding it be built entirely underground.

Royden Shotter of Mt Albert presented the 780-signature petition yesterday to Auckland City Council, which has upset residents by asking Transit NZ to build a motorway interchange halfway along the 5km route to siphon traffic off Great North Rd.

The highways agency is still consulting locals on plans to build the interchange above Oakley Creek in Phyllis St Reserve.

The reserve is home to the century-old Metro Sports Club and its more than 1100 soccer and softball members as well as to a dog-obedience centre.

The consultations continue despite a comment on the project last year by Prime Minister Helen Clark, MP for Mt Albert, that she had "long believed that tunnelling or cut-and-cover through sensitive areas will be required".

Transit hopes to confirm a final route in July. It will lodge a notice of land requirement with the city council, which will hold public hearings.

Transit board member and Labour Party president Mike Williams told the council's transport and urban linkages committee at yesterday's meeting that the agency would also open public consultations in about two weeks on tolling the western ring route.

The residents' petition, meanwhile, calls for the motorway link to be buried in cut-and-cover tunnels, with no entry points between Richardson Rd and where it is to join the Northwestern Motorway at Waterview.

Transit earlier proposed an interchange off New North Rd, but the council feared that would drag too much traffic through the Avondale town centre in contravention of its "liveable communities" strategy, so asked for an entry point further north.

But Mr Shotter and fellow residents overlooking Oakley Creek's right bank fear their quiet community will become unliveable if a motorway tunnel under New North Rd surfaces in the middle of Phyllis St Reserve.

He told the transport committee that the reserve and the creek, over which the motorway will cross, were part of a "unique" 50ha green-belt of inestimable value to Auckland and its future generations.

He understood an interchange in the reserve, into which traffic would feed from Blockhouse Bay Rd and Great North Rd, would add $40 million to $60 million to the project cost.

The Eden-Albert Community Board is also calling for the entire motorway link to be buried.

Councillor Glenda Fryer assured residents community boards along the route were working with the council and Transit on points of concern.

Deputy Mayor Bruce Hucker said the council could withdraw its support if mitigation conditions were not met.