KEY POINTS:
Pressure is mounting on the newly-established Transport Agency to shift the motorway along Onehunga Bay westward as part of the $230 million duplication of its Manukau Harbour crossing.
As Auckland City commissioners prepare to open a hearing today into a plan of works from the agency, which has subsumed Transit NZ, council development committee chairman Peseta Sam Lotu-liga has joined Onehunga residents in calling for a westward shift.
That follows the presentation to Parliament by Roskill MP Phil Goff yesterday of a 2560-signature petition calling on the Government "to take firm action to ensure the residents of Onehunga are not further disadvantaged by the completion of State Highway 20 across Onehunga Bay."
The Onehunga Enhancement Society wants the road-builder to support a $33 million harbour reclamation plan, including four new beaches, to restore the foreshore to approximately its 1970s pre-motorway condition.
Its plan includes moving the motorway west as part of the Transport Agency's proposal to double the width to four lanes in each direction, to keep it clear of a recreational lagoon and to provide a corridor for an underground railway and power, gas and water lines.
Agency officials have opposed that idea,, saying utility companies such as Transpower do not want to use such a corridor.
But Mr Lotu-liga says he would like them to reconsider their position.
"This would require the Government to fund the project beyond current levels," said Mr Lotu-liga, who is also standing as National's candidate for the Maungakiekie electorate, which includes Onehunga.
"For us to come up with a workable solution that will succeed, we need co-operation between all parties."
He said the city was committed to promoting and enhancing it "with the same vigour as it does the Waitemata".
"While we accept there has to be an improved motorway, we are being presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity to deliver infrastructure without compromising the foreshore and public access to it," he said.
The new agency has already begun building a duplicate motorway bridge between Onehunga and Mangere, which it is "future-proofing" to accommodate a potential rail link to the airport.
It has also agreed to a request by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority - although under legal pressure from the Campaign for Better Transport - to move a section of motorway through Mangere to the east to make room for a possible railway.
Although the new Government agency does not have to accept recommendations automatically from Auckland City, it may risk legal action in the Environment Court if it does not give them due consideration.
The transport authority is also considering building a rail line between Penrose and Avondale via an underground section through Onehunga Bay to Hillsborough as part of a $2.2 billion rapid transit proposal.
