Relief as agency backtracks on new motorway venting tower

The link road between the end of the Southwestern Motorway and Maioro St in New Windsor will be closed tonight for four weeks. Photo / Martin Sykes

Neighbours of Auckland's $2 billion Waterview motorway project are relieved the Transport Agency has dropped a second alternative site for a tunnel venting tower in their midst.

After facing community opposition to two new proposals, the agency has reverted to a site approved last year by a Government-appointed board of inquiry, on the opposite side of Great North Rd to Waterview Primary School.

Both alternatives were on the same side as the school, and emerged after the agency's construction partners found they would be able to tunnel all the way under the road, rather than having to cut into it towards the northern end.

They proposed the alternative sites to avoid having to dig up the road to pipe vehicle fumes across and under it to the 15m venting tower from the northern portals of twin motorway tunnels which will run 2.5km from Alan Wood Park in Owairaka.

But despite a promise of less disruption to traffic, Waterview residents opposed the new sites for their higher visibility, saying a more prominent tower would adversely "brand" their suburb.

Transport Agency regional highways manger Tommy Parker indicated that as well as offering short-term construction advantages, the alternative sites would have provided enduring environmental advantages.

The approved site is beside the BP fuel station on the edge of the Waterview Glades reserve above Oakley Creek, which will otherwise be largely unaffected by the motorway project in its lower reaches, although a section through Alan Wood Park will be realigned.

But Waterview resident Bill McKay, a university architecture lecturer who convenes the Northwest Community Association, says about 75 per cent of the tower on that site could be screened by existing vegetation.

Welcoming the agency's backdown, he said his group was open to exploring alternatives to other aspects of the motorway project, but not fundamental design changes such as the tower site.

"We feel it is a good thing they have stuck with the board of inquiry decision - there were a lot of people involved in that, a lot of experts and lots of discussion," he said.

Although a preliminary design for the tower on the approved site still had plenty of room for improvement, his group was "not unhappy" with progress on it.

Mr Parker said that despite the agency's confidence in the advantages of the alternative sites, it became apparent that they could not meet the social expectations of community representatives.

"The project is being delivered on the basis of balancing social, environmental and economic interests," he said.

In exploring new opportunities to mitigate construction effects, the agency believed it was operating in the spirit in which the project had won approval.

It was keen to keep looking for further opportunities to be identified either by the construction partners, community members, or other stakeholders, to achieve the best results from the project.

More information about the project will be available at community open days to be held on May 10, 11 and 12 at 4 Valonia St, off the northern end of Richardson Rd.

THE PROJECT

* Building 4.5km of new motorway from New Windsor to Waterview, of which 2.5km is to be tunnelled, connecting State Highways 20 and 16 to complete Auckland's 48km western ring route.
* Widening more than 8km of the Northwestern Motorway from St Lukes to Te Atatu, including raising the marine causeway west of Waterview.
* Completion of overall project due by 2017.
* Overall cost: $2 billion.