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Suggestions that road tolls may have to pay for a $1.9 billion tunnelled motorway through Waterview have provoked stern opposition from Auckland Regional Council members.
The council's transport committee offered support in principle yesterday for the mega-project, which Transit NZ wants to complete by 2015 as the final link in Auckland's 48km western ring route between Manukau and Albany.
But it decided to tell Transit that it does not support tolls on individual sectors of Auckland's roading network, and that potential rail links are its preference for improving public access to the airport.
Waitakere-based councillor Paul Walbran was scathing of suggestions by Transit and others that tolls may be necessary in the absence of full government funding for the project.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen has said it would be difficult to complete the Waterview link and other Auckland transport projects by 2015 from fuel-tax revenue alone. Auckland City Council has rebuffed successive bids by its minority City Vision-Labour councillors to rule out tolls.
Freight company DHL said a survey of 380 of its clients found that 51 per cent support tolls to help to pay for the project.
"It just goes to show how utterly frustrated people are with the traffic congestion and they'll do anything to alleviate the situation," said New Zealand general manager Derek Anderson.
But Mr Walbran said there appeared to be a plan "to toll the nasty Westies and keep them off this road so other people can fly past the CBD".
He said that, sarcasm aside, there would be no equity in imposing tolls on one part of the Auckland motorway network while those who may benefit from reduced congestion elsewhere would not be charged for their trips.
Councillor Judith Bassett said she supported a general toll on roads but strongly opposed charging motorists to drive on just one small section.
Manukau-based councillor Bill Burrill said his constituents would also be unhappy to pay tolls to use the western route to reach Albany, while reducing delays for other motorists through central Auckland.
The committee resolved to tell Transit "that tolling on discretesections of the roading network is not supported, particularly where wide-spread benefits accrue elsewhere".
But its decision to support the Waterview project in principle represents a change from its previous position, reached in 2006, favouring a route along the Rosebank Peninsula to connect State Highway 20 with the Northwestern Motorway.
Transport committee chairwoman Christine Rose said Transit's preference for running the Waterview link through bored tunnels went a long way toward alleviating previous concerns about the scale of social and environmental impacts of a "cut-and-cover" motorway through the sensitive Oakley Creek catchment.
Even so, council parks and heritage committee chairwoman Sandra Coney expressed concern about the impact of tunnel portals and motorway flyover ramps on archaeological sites.
She was also concerned about extra pressure the completed project may impose on the Northwestern Motorway's frequently-congested causeway between Waterview and Te Atatu, which she believed would have been reduced by a connection via Rosebank Rd.
Council transport group manager Don Houghton said Transit's traffic modelling had persuaded it to confine the new link to two lanes in each direction, rather than three lanes, so as not to create imbalances with other parts of its network.
