KEY POINTS:
Talk about putting the telescope up to one's blind eye. Tank Farm redevelopment supremo John Dalzell and his political boss, Judith Bassett, have decided to interpret Auckland regional councillors' historic call for a design competition for the whole redevelopment in a most peculiar way.
Rest easy, they coo in recent letters to the Herald, we're about to unveil a veritable festival of competitions. The first, in a few weeks, will be seeking ideas from the Auckland public for something called the Gateway Plaza. This silo mentality, developing each little site and plaza and public toilet as you go, is exactly the opposite of the global approach to design that the regional councillors are belatedly pressing for, and I'm sure Mrs Bassett and Mr Dalzell know that. But their obsession with Rugby World Cup deadlines is blinkering any long-term vision.
The Auckland City Council's Te Wero Bridge design contest to provide a link across the Viaduct Basin to the Tank Farm highlights the pitfalls of this piecemeal approach.
The city has recently launched a worldwide competition for a "a striking sculptural" lifting bridge to link Te Wero Island in the middle of the Viaduct Basin with the eastern edge of the Tank Farm, adjacent to the Team New Zealand base. Starting price is $35 million, "however the project will be funded at a level that is comparable with world-class opening bridges of this size ... ", which to me at least has the alarm bells ringing.
This "landmark" and "aesthetically world-class" bridge has to be a lifting bridge to let boats out of the basin and into the harbour. But the emphasis of the brief is less to do with function and more to do with statement. The vision, competitors are told, is "to create a landmark sculptural bridge for the harbour and our city."
But if the bureaucrats had asked, there are people on the waterfront who would have been quick to point out to them that there is already a landmark sculptural lifting bridge down there, which has history going for it as well. It's the road and rail, "rolling lift" bridge, linking Quay St with Te Wero Island, installed in 1932 and in use until the redevelopment of the basin in the 1990s for the America Cup regattas.
Yachtsman Peter Walker, charter operator William Goodfellow and Heart of the City chief executive and mayoral hopeful Alex Swney are among those who argue the contest asks the wrong question. They challenge the need for a new lifting bridge, arguing a simple elegant, fixed structure would be more functional and certainly lots cheaper.
To them, the focus should go on restoring and adapting the historic and neglected existing bridge, which is a tourist icon already, one that doesn't have to be conjured up out of nothing. Auckland City's heritage department acknowledges this, regarding it and its surrounds as a Category B relic. Auckland Regional Council also considers it worthy enough a landmark to use it alongside the terraced slopes of One Tree Hill to illustrate it's user guide to "Assessing Historic Heritage Significance".
Built in kit form in 1931 in Darlington, England, it was reassembled like a giant Meccano set on the waterfront in 1932 for just $46,000. On a busy day it was lifted more than 20 times a day to let fishing boats through. A concrete counterweight of 102 tonnes balanced it so well that a 15 horsepower electric motor was all that was needed to raise and lower it.
The city's plan is to retain it in its present non-operational state as a pedestrian and cycle bridge and obscure it with a new motor vehicle bridge alongside.
Mr Walker says the old bridge is not wide enough, at 8.6 metres, to cater for both two-way vehicular traffic and pedestrians, but argues pedestrian walkways could be attached to the sides or a separate walking bridge built alongside.
The existing 13 metre wide boat channel is also too narrow and will have to be widened. Mr Walker says discussions with harbour authorities and users indicate 20 metres would be acceptable from a navigational safety viewpoint. He says a scheduled lift every half hour for a couple of minutes would satisfy boat users' needs. Of course widening the channel would mean lengthening the bridge, or installing an extendable ramp on the island side. I'm assured when it comes to engineering, anything is possible.
It all sounds so sensible. But the bureaucrats prefer to dream of grander visions. And ask us to trust them.
