Govt axes Waterview tunnels option

The Government has effectively killed any prospect of deep tunnels for Auckland's Waterview motorway, leaving the Transport Agency to decide today between cheaper surface options.

These could still involve short covered trenches for parts of the 4.5km route through Mt Albert and beside Oakley Creek.

But they won't be enough to prevent community opposition to the motorway being fuelled before before the Mt Albert byelection on June 13.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce is expected to confirm this morning that the Government has no more money to spend on new highways after the $961 million extra it committed in March for the next three years, which were in addition to about $2 billion already available.

As Waterview is only one of seven roads the Government has since classified as "nationally significant", the Transport Agency will be left unable to build twin motorway tunnels costing up to $3 billion.

National's candidate for Mt Albert, Melissa Lee, said during a debate on Radio bFM that she preferred a surface motorway led to a warning from Labour transport spokesman Darren Hughes that 500 homes would be "bowled" throughthe electorate, rather than 160 around tunnel portals.

But Act candidate John Boscawan said this was "absolute rubbish" and the motorway could be built above ground to the eastern side of Oakley Creek with the loss of fewer than 50 houses, for as little as $500 million.

Green Party candidate and co-leader Russel Norman said an above-ground motorway risked destroying a fragile eco-system as well as hundreds of homes.

Prime Minister John Key said yesterday that although a surface route may be Ms Lee's preference "it is not necessarily what the Cabinet has recommended".

The former Transit NZ abandoned plans in 2006 for a partly-tunnelled motorway after fierce community opposition.

The Labour Government approved a $1.89 billion plan last year for a deep-bored tunnel the length of the route, but Mr Joyce ordered a review after construction costs rose to just over $2 billion, to which the Treasury added $550 million in financing costs.