Homes must make way for wider road

Mt Wellington Highway (top) is a busy clutter of shopping complexes and houses. The road will have a boulevard and landscaping (bottom).

An unknown number of people will be forced from their homes when the Mt Wellington Highway is widened.

The Auckland City Council is planning to spend tens of millions of dollars remodelling the 2.5km stretch of road from the Southern Motorway to Panmure.

A wide "boulevard" will be created with service lanes for residents, cycle and walking facilities, and trees and landscaping to create a buffer between homes and motor vehicles.

But transport planning group manager Allen Bufton said the boulevard would not be achieved without some pain.

An as-yet-unknown number of residents would be forced from their homes so the present four-lane road could be widened from 21m to between 30m and 40m.

But he said the council planned a new approach that would treat affected homeowners fairly and create a better environment for people left living near the road.

"In the past we have taken a 2m strip and moved a road 2m nearer someone's bedroom or living room."

By acquiring, for example, a row of houses, people would not be left living with the consequences and a buffer would create a better environment for those left in the next row of houses back, Mr Bufton said.

Rex Riddell, who has lived on Mt Wellington Highway for 32 years, said he would be a willing seller if the council wanted his home and he received the market price.

The 72-year-old called the highway "terrible". It could take up to 15 minutes to get his car out of the driveway and recently he counted 14 trucks roaring past his front gate within five minutes.

He once was tipped from his wheelchair and ended up in hospital after an accident on the footpath.

Mr Bufton said the highway project was a pilot to show that roading improvements could become a catalyst for more intense and higher quality housing, improve the potential for public transport and create a better environment for residents.

"We can't go on doing road improvements like we have been in the past," he said.

Mt Wellington Highway is the first project out of the blocks under new plans to replace the ill-fated eastern motorway, promoted by former Mayor John Banks at a cost of up to $4 billion and rejected by voters at the 2004 local body elections. It forms part of an expanded road link between the Southern Motorway and Glen Innes that has approval of $1.2 million to go to the preliminary design work stage.

The work will investigate two options for linking Mt Wellington Highway with Glen Innes.

The first option skirts Mt Wellington and has archeological, cultural, volcanic cone and public access issues to address.

The second is to build a new road from Triangle Rd, just off Mt Wellington Highway, and follow the railway line in a trench under the Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mountain Rd to Glen Innes.

Panmure Community Action Group spokesman Keith Sharp said he was waiting for the details because the group had big concerns about the Mt Wellington/Glen Innes road and a further proposed link road through the Mt Wellington quarry housing development.

The new roads had the potential to improve traffic congestion in Panmure but there were fears they could become a "de facto" highway and pour more traffic into the area.