Bulldozers move in on sandy beach 'promise'

Government motorway builders are preparing to move bulldozers on to the Onehunga waterfront this week, despite efforts by a community group to tie them to an alleged 35-year-old promise to provide sandy beaches.

The Transport Agency says its contractors can wait no longer to extend their $230 million motorway duplication project across Manukau Harbour to the foreshore, after giving the Onehunga Enhancement Society until March 31 to reach a funding agreement with Auckland City and the regional council on an 11ha reclamation plan.

Agency northern director Wayne McDonald, despite confirming that his board had offered to contribute $18 million to the plan, said it was up to the city council to organise that and to obtain resource consents from the regional body for the reclamation.

He said the contractors, who have already substantially built piers for a duplicate motorway bridge across the harbour, needed to start work along Onehunga Bay to meet a target of completing the project in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

But enhancement society chairman Jim Jackson, while grateful for the promised financial contribution, said the community would reserve its legal rights unless the Government agency honoured an agreement made by predecessor organisations in 1974 to provide Onehunga with sandy beaches in mitigation for the original motorway.

"There needs to be a memorandum of understanding signed off by key stakeholders in this project to ensure the non-delivery of promises made over the last 30 years is avoided at all costs. If we can get an MOU and substantial [financial] figures for the 11ha and a substantial bridge linking Onehunga to its waterfront, I'm sure we could satisfy our community and avoid the potential for a judicial review."

Although Auckland City has undertaken to contribute $10 million towards some form of reclamation, it has been unable to persuade the regional council to match that figure, leaving a potential shortfall of $12 million to $18 million.

But Mr Jackson said his organisation hoped a $40 million estimate for the reclamation could be reduced by $12 million by using harbour dredgings instead of clean fill.

"Over 60 years a huge amount of silt has entered the harbour through the stormwater system, and by using specialised dredging to move that mud, the public amenity value will increase dramatically because people will be able to use the water 90 per cent of the time instead of just 10 per cent."

Auckland City Mayor John Banks said he remained committed to the project, but had asked council officers to verify costings for dredging before being in a position to join the call for extra Government funds.

"I think this is one of the great projects for Auckland at an extraordinary time in history with the build of State Highway 20 - there will be no other opportunity to do what needs to be done now," he told the Herald.

But he was disappointed the regional council "doesn't share my enthusiasm for this environmental enhancement of the Manukau".