Clamour grows against motorway

Transit NZ faces mounting pressure from Auckland Regional Council and community groups to abandon plans for a $1 billion motorway through Waterview.

Plans are on hold while Transit researches tunnel options for its preferred 5km passage from New Windsor to the Northwestern Motorway at Waterview. The agency received a roasting at a presentation yesterday to the council's transport policy committee.

Committee deputy chair and Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett said it "beggars belief" that Transit had ignored a council call to keep investigating a route along Rosebank Peninsula.

"Transit seems to be a law unto itself - what value do you place on working with other organisations?" he asked regional transportation manager Tommy Parker.

"It frustrates the hell out of me."

Mr Parker denied Transit had failed to consider the views of other organisations, saying it had taken from 1998 until February to confirm its preference for a motorway connection at Waterview, rather than through Rosebank.

An extension to Rosebank, including long motorway ramps from Avondale to Waterview, was initially estimated to cost $1.55 billion.

Auckland and Waitakere city councils support the Waterview route, provided Transit softens the motorway's impact on the community and the environment, including Oakley Creek.

But the regional council in March backed Rosebank, and asked Transit for cost estimates so the two could be compared.

Transit announced last week it would consider a bore tunnel among three potential options for the Waterview route, after running into community opposition and geotechnical challenges.

Mr Parker told the committee it was too early to predict how much extra such a tunnel would cost, although the technology had become cheaper in recent years.

He would not comment explicitly on whether entry and exit ramps halfway down the motorway extension, through Phyllis St Reserve in Mt Albert, would be compatible with a deep tunnel.

He said Transit would consider a design change to ensure that an interchange at Waterview avoided archeological sites.

Bill McKay of the Northwestern Community Association said the route was too narrow for a motorway. He believed Transit had been influenced by a perceived need to cater for a third crossing of Waitemata Harbour.

Mr Parker denied that a future harbour crossing was a major consideration, and he rejected a claim by regional council chairman Mike Lee that the route would compromise Transit's highways strategy by attracting too much local traffic.

He said vehicles drawn to it from local roads would be "through traffic" heading for such destinations as the airport.