Board backs $28m waterfront vision

An artist's impression of the planned bridge over SH20. Photo / Fulton Hogan

Concept designs for Onehunga's $28 million waterfront makeover - which will include four sandy beaches as part of a new coastline - have won enthusiastic support from local politicians.

The Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board yesterday approved the designs for presentation to the public at an open day on Saturday, after which minor changes are likely to be made in response to suggestions from residents and other interested parties.

A consortium headed by Fulton Hogan, with designs by coastal engineering experts Tonkin and Taylor, intends lodging an application for resource consents before the end of next month.

It hopes to start construction of the long-awaited project next year, aiming for a completion target of 2014, although the consortium and Auckland Council officers are still trying to allay Maori iwi concerns about a proposed reclamation of 6.4ha from the Manukau Harbour.

Tonkin and Taylor senior coastal engineer Richard Reinen-Hamill told the local board the intention was to replace what is now a 900m straight and rocky stretch of waterfront next to a widened motorway with 1.5km of curving coastline.

Sandy beaches for swimming would be interspersed with gravel or shell "pocket" beaches and the development would be delineated at each end by headlands pointing into the harbour.

These will enable large grassy areas to be developed as a buffer against the motorway, with vegetation including pohutukawa trees, and a wildness area to be developed at the eastern end of the project.

A headland at that end will rise 8m above Orpheus Drive, enabling a new shared cycling and pedestrian bridge to reach 80m across the motorway for easier waterfront access.

Mr Reinen-Hamill produced images to show that despite the size of the required reclamation, it would not be "hugely visible" from various distances across the harbour.

Auckland Council official Neill Forgie, who is overseeing a $23 million contract awarded in April to the Fulton Hogan consortium, acknowledged concern about water quality but said flows from nearby stormwater outlets were being closely monitored.

"Once we get full results, if they are negative we will be taking it up with our stormwater people," he said.

"What we don't want is to design beaches for swimming and you can't swim in them."

Board member Simon Randall said he was particularly excited about the proposal as his grandfather used to swim at a beach which existed before a motorway approach to the Mangere bridge was built about 30 years ago.

The new waterfront development will include a network of shared walking and cycling paths which Mr Forgie indicated he was keen to limit to a width of 2.5m, in keeping with the rest of the landscape.

He hoped to cater for the large number of cyclists now using Orpheus Drive with a 3m path using the road's existing sea. But that would require reducing the road to one lane with passing bays, an idea which he asked the local board to respond to before resource consent applications were lodged.

Onehunga Enhancement Society chairman Jim Jackson, who has spent years pushing for the project, said the waterfront area would be turned into a destination rather than a passing-through zone.

The Transport Agency is contributing $18 million to the project as part-mitigation for widening the motorway as part of its completed $230 million duplicate traffic crossing of Manukau Harbour.

The Auckland Council is providing a balance of $10 million, meaning $5 million will be available for contingency purposes.

* Open Day from 10am to 2pm on Saturday at Manukau Cruising Club in Orpheus Drive, Onehunga Bay.