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Government transport officials are considering four-lane motorway and expressway links north of Auckland to Warkworth and Wellsford as part of upgrades costing up to $1.8 billion.
The Auckland Regional Transport Committee yesterday approved - although not without opposition from some members - $8 million of road and intersection developments aimed at easing traffic bottlenecks on State Highway 1 through Warkworth.
That will be the first stage of a $17 million joint venture between the Government's new Transport Agency and Rodney District Council to upgrade all five main intersections between the highway and local roads.
The committee's approval clears the way for construction to start during summer.
The first stage will include widening the 400m section of SH1 between Woodcocks Rd and Whitaker Rd to four lanes, improving the intersections at both ends and adding a combined walking and cycleway for non-motorists travelling between Mahurangi College and Warkworth's town centre.
But in a separate meeting, the Auckland Regional Council expressed concern at an agency proposal to start investigating a potential new route for a 15km motorway extension between Puhoi and Warkworth.
In a study of long-term links between Auckland and Wellsford, the agency has confirmed that SH1 is its preferred route serving a national function.
It wants to leave SH16 to keep providing regional service.
It has ruled out elevating SH16 to national importance as an extension of Auckland's western ring route, or investigating building a new main artery inland, roughly following the northern railway line.
But a draft report which the agency is circulating among interested parties proposes building a four-lane motorway on a new alignment between Puhoi and Warkworth, and then an expressway of similar capacity over the 19km section to Wellsford.
The report also proposes pressing ahead with a realignment of the difficult Schedewys Hill section north of Puhoi, upgrading an extension of the Northwestern Motorway to a four-lane expressway to Brigham Creek Rd, and extending the Northern Busway to Silverdale.
The realignment may form the first section of a future motorway.
But the report says that although an extended busway would ease congestion between Orewa and Silverdale, public transport is unlikely to have much effect on overall growth in the study area because of its dispersed population.
It acknowledges that "external factors" such as the availability of oil could affect travel demand, and should therefore be monitored.
But it says development north of Auckland is already putting pressure on SH1 and its main alternative route, SH16.
That has left the regional council unimpressed, and it will urge the transport agency to reconsider securing land designations for a new motorway to Warkworth.
Instead, it wants to encourage the management of developments in support of Auckland's growth strategy, aimed at containing urban sprawl within designated parts of the region.
A council officers' report said the environmental costs of such a motorway through difficult terrain were likely to be no less challenging than the $365 million Orewa to Puhoi toll road, and "may well be unaffordable in the foreseeable future".
The agency's northern manager, Peter Spies, said his organisation was simply consulting the council and other interested parties on the desirability of "future-proofing" a preferred route for long-distance travel needs.
It was too soon to discuss route possibilities, except to say that any bypass of Warkworth would be to the west of the town.
Even the short-term Warkworth project was too much for some Auckland Regional Transport Committee members yesterday, including Cycle Action Auckland chairman Bevan Woodward, who questioned "throwing $8 million at a 400m length of road".
He unsuccessfully sought a review to consider what savings could be made through "travel demand management" such as reducing road freight and providing public transport.
But Rodney Mayor Penny Webster said rail was already carrying 80 per cent more long-distance freight through the region than trucks, and her council was promoting travel plans in schools and the community.
