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Costs have nearly doubled to $46 million for an Auckland public transport project in which cars will be banned by day in favour of buses on Grafton Bridge.
Auckland City Council's transport committee yesterday approved a call for tenders for a bus corridor between Britomart and Newmarket, a project which has been under investigation since 1999 but is not now due for completion until 2009.
Subject to council approval of a tender for its most ambitious public transport project since the $211 million Britomart centre, construction will start in July.
The committee will meanwhile recommend to the council an increase to almost $3 million for a $1.22 million design contract awarded before an urban design review added a long list of features to the project, such as extended footpath canopies and raised pedestrian crossings.
Those changes are valued at up to $3.5 million, but council staff also yesterday disclosed other rises such as in road-building materials which have boosted the project's cost estimate from $32 million last year and from $25 million from a scheme assessment in 2003.
The latest estimate of between $42.7 million and $46.1 million will include $9 million to strengthen the 97-year-old Grafton Bridge for light rail once the busway reaches its capacity.
The project will include bus lanes along much of Symonds St and Park Rd, Grafton, and extensive canopies over footpaths where thousands of university students and hospital visitors wait for buses each day.
But the cost will not include a $5 million stormwater-sewage separation project which council subsidiary Metrowater will undertake at the same time in Grafton, or a $1 million-plus conversion of Alfred St through Auckland University into a pedestrian and buses-only thoroughfare.
The council has applied to Land Transport NZ for a $20 million subsidy to match $13.66 million of regional funds from the old Infrastructure Auckland and up to $11.4 million of ratepayers' money.
