KEY POINTS:
Resource consents for Coromandel's new $41 million Kopu Bridge have gathered dust for the past five years and only a last-minute reprieve has prevented them from lapsing.
Transit's failure to buy key land surrounding the project area, combined with delays caused by red tape, meant the roading authority this week had to cross its fingers that Environment Waikato would grant a special extension.
A two-year extension was granted on Monday, although this still may not be enough time for Transit to begin physical work on the bridge.
Transit project manager John Hannah downplayed the situation yesterday and said that if needed, a further application would be made in 2009 to extend consent timeframes again.
"They have not been gathering dust. In 2002 we didn't know when it was programmed for construction and it was only confirmed for construction in 2005."
But in 2004 local politicians predicted the bridge would be complete by Christmas 2007, after the Waikato Regional Land Transport Committee unanimously agreed to lift the project's priority.
This came after an extra $162 million was specially allocated for Waikato roading projects by the Transport Minister.
Mr Hannah said the regional transport committee did not have the final call on when construction began. That was a Land Transport decision.
Construction was set down for 2010, but works could still begin before then, Mr Hannah said, because the design phase was now complete.
Motorists were furious about the delays. Thames resident George Yates said: "I was chair of the Chamber of Commerce in the 80s and there was fighting going on then about the bridge and the holdups it was causing."
He said the continued changing of dates for the bridge's construction were indicative of Transit incompetence.
An Environment Waikato report said three land purchases by Transit were expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year.
Delays were also blamed on appeals over designations, the missing of crucial funding round cutoff dates, and a change to funding criteria when the Land Transport Act kicked in in 2003.
