A dedicated Auckland City-to-Newmarket busway is a step closer despite Grafton residents' fears that a procession of noisy, polluting buses will destroy their inner-city suburb.
Auckland City's transport committee voted yesterday to go ahead with the $20 million to $25 million busway from Britomart to Newmarket, passing the universityin Symonds St and the hospital in Park Rd.
The project involves closing Grafton Bridge to cars and commercial vehicles.
But to address Grafton residents concerns, the committee decided to limit the closure of the bridge to weekdays from 7am to 7pm.
It also decided to introduce minimum vehicle emission standards for buses. Without them, vehicle emissions would increase along Park Rd near the hospital.
New carparking also has been recommended at the Park Rd shops in Grafton. Other carparks will be lost along the route.
The project involves landscaping and tree planting to encourage cycling and walking, and new bus shelters will be built at main stops.
The busway would initially be used by 1350 buses on weekdays; by 2011, it would be used by 1500 buses, or one every 30 seconds at peak hours.
Grafton Residents Association chairman David Haigh said the proposal showed no regard for the local community.
"If you can imagine 1500 buses coming through Grafton and a successful community at the end of it, you must be dreaming."
The report said investigations into an alternative route using Symonds St and Khyber Pass Rd, favoured by Grafton residents, would require the demolition of buildings, the loss of two traffic lanes for buses and would not connect the city with the hospital and medical school.
The only new land required along the route are a wide strip of land outside the medical school in Park Rd and a small slice of land on the corner of Park Rd and Khyber Pass Rd.
Trucks are already banned from Grafton Bridge, which will need to be strengthened at a cost of $1.3 million to take more buses. A proposal to keep Grafton Bridge open to normal traffic and to build a new bridge just to the north for buses at a cost of $9 million has been dropped.
The 13,000 cars that use Grafton Bridge daily will be diverted to the new Wellesley St bridge and Khyber Pass Rd.
Transport committee chairman Greg McKeown said Infrastructure Auckland, Transfund and other beneficiaries, such as the hospital and university, should pay all the costs of the project, which could start in a year.
