Public get to see planned $220m express route

Construction is due to start within two years on a key component of the 95km four-lane Waikato Expressway, a bypass east of Ngaruawahia costing up to $220 million.

The Transport Agency, which is holding a public open day in Taupiri on Thursday to outline design details for the 12.5km bypass, said yesterday that construction was programmed for completion within five years of a start date of 2011.

It is expected to cost between $180 million and $220 million for four lanes to be built between Taupiri and a new crossing of the Waikato River south of Horotiu, where the road will be plugged into a 6km bypass of Te Rapa through Hamilton's northern gateway.

The alternative Te Rapa link, which is not part of the main expressway between Mercer and Cambridge but is expected to cost $200 million to $220 million, is due to be completed before the Ngaruawahia bypass from a construction start in 2010-11.

Those two projects are due to be followed by bypasses of Rangiriri, Cambridge, Huntly and Hamilton - in that order - towards completion of the expressway for $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion.

Interchanges are still being designed for links between the Ngaruawahia bypass and its Huntly and Hamilton counterparts which are expected to cost more than $500 million each.

Although the Transport Agency's designers have been in overdrive since March - when the Government classified the expressway as one of seven roads of national significance for extra funding allocations, including money to be transferred from public transport - Hamilton City Council remains nervous about its commitment to the Te Rapa bypass.

City transport chairman Dave Macpherson said a start date for the bypass had already slipped from 2007, and funding uncertainty was holding up a major development of Hamilton's northwest sector out to Rotokauri, where there was room for up to 25,000 new settlers as well as light industry.

Mr Macpherson said the agency's strategic planning should have been more advanced, to allow it to act faster on Prime Minister John Key's ambitious election promise to complete the expressway within 10 years.

It has been three years since the 12km Mercer-to-Longswamp section of the road was completed for $82 million.

The open day at the Taupiri Settlers Hall between noon and 7pm will look at options for joining the Ngaruawahia bypass to State Highway 1, including the possibility of a roundabout there and at a turnoff to Orini.

It will follow the existing Gordonton Rd for about 2.6km, before heading south towards Lake Areare and Lake Rd, where an interchange is planned with the future Hamilton bypass.

The new road will head from there to a new crossing of the Waikato River, about 400m south of the Horotiu bridge, before rejoining SH1 just north of Fonterra's Te Rapa dairy factory.

* Waikato fast-track

94.5km expressway between Mercer and Cambridge.

Expected time savings: 10 minutes between Mercer and Hamilton; 20 minutes Mercer-Cambridge.

Cost: $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion.