Community worker knows home is lost

John Bustard. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Mt Albert community worker John Bustard is resigned to losing his home of 21 years after hopes were dashed for twin tunnels for the Waterview motorway.

The Hendon Ave resident and Justice of the Peace said yesterday he had begun perusing brochures for retirement villages as he was approaching 65 and was tired of uncertainty over the years caused by successive proposals for the final 4.5km link in Auckland's western ring route.

"I have been involved in community groups for probably 10 years and will believe this thing is going ahead only when I see the first sign of diggers, because I have experienced at least four schemes," he said.

Mr Bustard and his neighbours thought they were out of the woods when the former Transit NZ announced a $1.89 billion scheme last year to dig deep-bored twin tunnels all the way from Richardson Rd in Owairaka to the Northernwestern Motorway at Waterview.

But after the construction estimate rose to $1.98 billion and the Treasury added $550 million in assumed debt-financing, the Government pulled the plug this week on the twin tunnels.

The Transport Agency has since unveiled another scheme, a cheaper surface-underground version including a 700m tunnel from just south of New North Rd to the northern end of Blockhouse Bay Rd and a covered trench for 1.1km through Waterview to the Northwestern Motorway. That is expected to cost $1.165 billion without counting an extra $240 million to widen the Northwestern to cope with extra traffic from Waterview.

Although the tunnel is up to 40m deep, Mr Bustard expects his property will be bulldozed to construct its southern portal, where one of three towers will be built to vent motorway traffic fumes into the atmosphere.

Residents at the tunnel's northern end were less certain on the impact on their properties.

The Transport Agency says that since announcing the latest scheme on Wednesday it has begun negotiations to buy three more properties on a "willing seller" basis to add to 126 houses it already owns along the route.

It needs up to 365 properties. It will hold information open days from early next month, before its board decides in August whether to build the motorway.

Resource consent applications will be lodged early next year, and the agency hopes to gain statutory approval in time to start a four-year construction programme before the end of 2011. Agency chief executive Geoff Dangerfield said fair prices plus all removal expenses would be paid for properties according to market valuations, although he also acknowledged the depressed state of the market.

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