KEY POINTS:
Transit NZ is under community pressure at hearings into its $330 million Manukau Harbour motorway duplication project to restore a sandy shoreline along Onehunga Bay.
Onehunga electrical manufacturer Jim Jackson, representing 15 of 100 opponents of Transit's scheme, told a hearings panel yesterday that the community was determined to resist more badly-designed structures like those inflicted on it in the past, and supported an alternative proposal he had developed for a reclaimed shoreline and an underpass to carry traffic between the Southwestern Motorway and Onehunga.
Transit's scheme - which is under consideration by commissioners appointed by Auckland Regional Council, the Auckland and Manukau city councils, and Conservation Minister Chris Carter - includes a 7m-high bridge over the motorway from a "quarter-diamond" interchange above the Gloucester Park volcanic ring.
That is in addition to a five-lane duplicate motorway bridge over the harbour itself, and a widening of approaches from Queenstown Rd in Hillsborough and from Walmsley Rd in Mangere to three lanes in each direction.
Although Transit accepted the quarter-diamond idea from Auckland City staff as less obtrusive than a full-diamond interchange proposed initially, Mr Jackson said it would still add to the "clutter" of high-voltage power lines and what he called an intimidating man-made rocky shoreline built in the 1970s as part of the original Mangere Bridge project.
"This is the real gateway into Auckland from the airport and should be accorded that importance by a major revamp of the area, and not be left as the ugly duckling it currently is," he said.
His proposal would involve lifting a section of the motorway by 3m to fit the underpass beneath it, but he said Transit intended to raise it to some extent in any case.
Mangere Bridge Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Roger Baldwin told the commissioners that Transit's proposal would create a "concrete monstrosity" and do nothing to mitigate "the desecration of the Manukau Harbour foreshore at Onehunga perpetrated when State Highway 20 was first constructed". Transit is proposing a reclamation of just 0.55ha, compared with the more than 20ha which replaced sandy beaches with a relatively straight and inaccessible shoreline along Onehunga Bay when the former Ministry of Works and Development built the original bridge.
But although the agency argues it wants to keep the new project's "footprint" as small as possible, a regional council report to the hearings panel warns that its proposed reclamation is not big enough to fit required features such as a pedestrian and cycle-way, and clearance space for utility services.
Mr Jackson's scheme, for which he has made a scale model in consultation with Onehunga residents, includes two small islands and a mixture of sandy beaches and rocky outcrops to replicate the original shoreline.
The hearings will continue on Friday and next week.
