Long and winding road to approval of Eastern Corridor

By BERNARD ORSMAN

The eastern highway is not a done deal.

In fact, the proposals for a six-lane road from the central city through the eastern suburbs to Manukau are just that - proposals.

The public has until October 4 to make public submissions on the plans by Eastdor, a consortium of planning, engineering and environmental consultants hired in March to come up with broad options for the eastern corridor.

The Auckland and Manukau city councils will then consider the feedback and commission a more detailed study of the options.

Crucial to this study will be an assessment of the environmental effects.

The detailed study will form the basis for the councils seeking a new designation for the corridor and resource consents to build over the coastal areas of Hobson Bay, Orakei Basin and Purewa Creek.

Auckland City transport planning manager Janine Bell said the detailed study would take about 12 months.

The councils would go to tender for the $1.5 million contract, 52 per cent paid for by the Auckland and Manukau councils and 48 per cent by the national funding agency, Transfund.

Once the detailed options were released, the public would have an opportunity to make submissions, followed by a series of hearings.

Janine Bell said independent commissioners would hear the land designation applications in Auckland and Manukau cities.

The Auckland Regional Council would hear resource consent applications for coastal areas.

It is inevitable that the decisions of the commissioners and the ARC will be challenged in the Environment Court.

It is anyone's guess how long that process will take, but Janine Bell said the minimum timeframe was one year.

Should the councils receive final approval from the courts, it will take two to three years to complete the design work, come up with a funding package and build the highway.

Under the best-case scenario, it could be open by 2007. It could also never happen.

Feature: Auckland traffic

Related links