Motorway tunnel carries $175m price tag

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Replacing a stretch of Auckland motorway with a more environment-friendly tunnel under Victoria Park will cost the region $175 million.

Local politicians have two months to rustle up the money or Transit New Zealand will proceed to widen the Victoria Park flyover from two to three lanes in each direction.

Interested parties have been exploring the best way to fund a tunnel by pushing the costs from motorists and on to ratepayers.

Victoria Park is the first test case on how far public bodies will go to reduce environmental damage from motorways projects through sensitive areas in Auckland. Other examples are the State Highway 20 extension through Avondale and the eastern highway.

The national road building agency, Transit, has agreed to pay $105 million to expand the Victoria Park flyover but not the extra $175 million for a tunnel.

National highway manager Rick Van Barneveld said Transit acknowledged the environmental benefits of a tunnel, but the extra cost would mean deferring other projects or finding other sources of money.

Mr Barneveld said it might appear that Transit had a minimalist approach, but it was focused on meeting environmental and social obligations. It planned to reduce noise and make the new flyover less visually intrusive. Tunnelling required a co-operative approach, he said.

A workshop organised by the Auckland Regional Council to explore funding options has broadly agreed to pay for the tunnel through a mix of sources including regional, council and a rate on local residents, who will benefit most from an improved Victoria Park.

Infrastructure Auckland has said it would pay $30 million towards a tunnel.

However, the idea of putting much of the cost on ratepayers, who already face a new public transport rate from the Auckland Regional Council of about $150 a year, received a cool response from some councillors at the workshop.

Local residents generally supported an option for a special rate of $25 a year towards the tunnel. Auckland City ratepayers would also pay about $15 a year and residents outside Auckland City $5 a year.

St Marys Bay Association chairman Tony Skelton said the stretch of motorway was one of the busiest roads in New Zealand and it was important for the wider community to control pollution and noise.

"I don't see a problem in the local community sharing that load of the variable rating process so that the further out you get the cheaper it gets," he said.

Ian Bradley, chairman of the ARC's strategic policy committee and head of a taskforce on the tunnel project, has two months to find a funding solution.

If he cannot, Transit will proceed to seek a resource consent to expand the flyover instead.

Mr Bradley said the simple solution to the project would be a regional petrol tax, but the Government was not keen on the idea.

He said both the regional and city councils were publicly in favour of the tunnel, and it was "time for people to put up or shut up".

Auckland Mayor John Banks has said he would not sit back and allow Transit to put another couple of concrete clip-ons across "beautiful" Victoria Park.

"Yes it will cost $100 million more to cut and cover under Victoria Park, but 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," Mr Banks said last month.

Mr Bradley said the taskforce was a final shot at building a tunnel and making Auckland a better place to live.

"This is clearly a case of where the community is benefiting more than just easing congestion."

The story so far

* Transit has discussed a tunnel under Victoria Park for 17 years.

* Options have included a full tunnel, partial tunnel or traffic running one way over the viaduct and the other way through a tunnel.

* The St Marys Bay Association has also proposed sinking the motorway into a trench along a straightened approach to the Harbour Bridge, at a cost of $430 million.

* The focus now is on a full tunnel under Victoria Park at a cost of $280 million, of which Transit is prepared to pay $105 million.

* The project will expand the motorway to three lanes in each direction across Victoria Park and have five lanes in each direction between the park and the bridge.