Brian Rudman: Motorway planners have eyes on Victoria Park

COMMENT

When I rose in defence of Victoria Park on Wednesday I didn't know the half of it. Not only is this green and pleasant central city oasis under siege from Auckland City parks staff itching to rent it out for commercial gain, but also in the background with bulldozers revving is Transit New Zealand with another pitch to take over the western end of the park.

Most worrying for guardians of the park, the national road builders have come knocking on Auckland City's door bearing armfuls of tempting candy as well. If they're allowed to build a new bridge-to-city motorway across the park, they are offering to build a compensatory replacement park nearby, most likely across Fanshawe St in the waterfront Tank Farm land.

Transit is also proposing, as one possible solution, to replace the existing ugly squat motorway flyover with an "iconic" structure.

At a private briefing with key transport officials and politicians from Auckland City, North Shore City and Auckland Regional Council last week, the spectacular Anzac Bridge, Sydney, came up as an example of the sort of engineering landmark structure in mind.

The participants agreed to meet in two months, by which time Transit would be able to produce more details of this option, along with a revisit of the four others already considered in the past.

North Shore Mayor George Wood, who has been pushing Transit for action and was at the meeting, says, "Help is on the way."

However, new Transit chairman David Stubbs, who called the meeting, is a little more circumspect, saying it was a chance "to re-engage the key opinion makers and see if we can find a way forward".

There's no doubt the impasse between local politicians and Transit over removing this bottleneck in Auckland's highway network needs solving. Whether any above-ground solution will be acceptable to Aucklanders is another matter.

Until now, both Auckland City and the regional council have firmly backed a tunnel as the only solution. Even Mayor John Banks, who doesn't spring to mind as a greenie, declared 18 months ago that Transit's plan to clip extra lanes onto the existing structure was "an urban landscape obscenity".

A few months later he said: "Let's spend $100 million more and cut and cover under Victoria Park because the city doesn't need to be destroyed with any more motorways like that."

At the time, Transit had said it would pay $105 million to widen the flyover from two to three lanes in each direction. If Aucklanders wanted a tunnel, they would have to find the extra $175 million. That was March 2003. Nothing has happened since.

Mr Stubbs says it's time for a re-evaluation of the options. "I'm not convinced yet that, cash aside, the tunnel option is the right one."

He says trucks will have difficulty handling the 8 per cent gradient emerging from the tunnel on the city side. And there will be emission disposal concerns, potential problems interfacing with another harbour crossing, security issues and higher maintenance costs.

These are not new issues. They were all raised a year ago and considered before Auckland City and the regional council decided to endorse the tunnel option anyway.

And for every problem with the underground route, there is a disadvantage to match it overland, including noise and visual pollution.

The breakthrough in this new round of discussions is Transit's intention to underwrite more than its unacceptable take-it-or-leave-it offer last year of the 1960s-style clip-on proposal.

Not only is it proposing an engineering solution that might straddle the park in one leap, but it is talking of a replacement park for the one being diminished. No doubt that's little comfort for apartment owners enticed into living around Victoria Park by city planners.

Still, if the highway builders can come up with an overhead highway with modern noise-baffling side walls that has little more effect on Victoria Park than the present viaduct, and throw in an additional new inner-city park as well, then I for one am willing to consider it.