KEY POINTS:
Questions are being raised over start dates for two big Auckland motorway projects - the $195 million Newmarket Viaduct replacement and the $220 million Hobsonville bypass - just weeks before the election.
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday announced in Newmarket that the Government's Transport Agency had decided to release funds for construction of the long-awaited replacement for the earthquake-threatened viaduct to start "as early as next month".
That announcement will be followed by the official turning by Transport Minister Annette King early next week of the first sod of earth for the 6km Hobsonville motorway section and an associated 3km extension of the Northwestern Motorway past Massey.
National Party leader John Key has declined an invitation to attend that ceremony as local Helensville MP, citing election campaign commitments, and would not comment on its timing.
But his transport spokesman, Maurice Williamson, issued a statement questioning how the viaduct project had suddenly become a priority just five weeks from the election after suffering several "false starts".
"Over the past nine years, New Zealanders have heard countless roading promises from this Labour Government and far too many of them have been reannounced and recooked for purely political purposes."
Newmarket Business Association general manager Cameron Brewer, who made a point of wearing a red tie to yesterday's viaduct ceremony despite being a National Party member, welcomed the viaduct announcement while questioning its timing.
"We are pretty happy about it but suspicious about their motive," he said last night.
He said he was not surprised by the Hobsonville timing, given what he called the "political nature" of the Transport Agency's board, with half of its eight members having existing or previous Labour ties.
Agency acting regional manager Tommy Parker would not be drawn into political debate, but noted the projects were coming to fruition for the start of the normal summer construction season.
The Newmarket project will be constructed between next month and 2013 by the same contracting alliance nearing completion of the $365 million Northern Gateway toll road to Puhoi. That project includes a similar viaduct to Newmarket, which will carry about 200,000 vehicles a day. Ms King accused Mr Williamson of "bare-faced cheek" in describing the Newmarket development as too little, too late.
"This is the Rip Van Winkle of the transport sector, the man who, through all his years as Transport Minister in the last National Government, hardly completed an access ramp in an outlying suburb."
She listed 10 major Auckland transport projects which Labour had completed or begun - including the $295 million Northern Busway, a $207 million refit of Spaghetti Junction and various components of the 48km western ring route.
Making the announcement in Newmarket, Helen Clark said planning for the viaduct replacement was well ahead of schedule, after a five-year Government transport funding commitment in 2006 envisaged construction starting in 2010-11.
"A remarkable thing has happened," she said. "The resource consent process has gone so smoothly that we are well ahead of schedule.
"So much ahead, that construction on this huge $195 million project is going to be able to start not in 2010, but next month," she said.
But Mr Brewer recalled that the Environment Court issued its consent order for the viaduct 15 months ago, prompting the former Transit NZ to suggest the project may have been able to start last summer for completion in time for the Rugby World Cup in 2011.
A subsequent cash squeeze caused by good progress on other Auckland motorway projects, including the $230 million Manukau Harbour crossing duplication, has meant revision of that target to 2013.
Even so, Helen Clark said the agency's release of funds meant that an enlarged 690m bridge carrying four lanes of southbound traffic would be ready by 2011, leaving just a replacement three-lane northbound structure to be completed.
Mr Parker said the project should be completed without interrupting daytime traffic, and its construction staged so that the southbound bridge could be opened and the rest of the site tidied up in time for the rugby cup.
