Surprise change to Waterview motorway plan

Auckland's $1.15 billion Waterview motorway project has had a surprise route change, which the Transport Agency says will lead to 160 fewer homes being demolished.

The agency says that by digging a 2.4km tunnel east of a preferred route announced in May, it is able to reduce the number of houses affected to 205.

Although that brings the figure closer to the 160 homes which would have been demolished at portals of a longer set of twin tunnels, ruled out by the Government after a cost blowout to more than $2 billion, critics are reserving judgment until the agency unveils a mitigation package in late February.

It has decided to delay seeking a notice of requirement from Auckland City Council over land along the route until after a "project expo" then for communities affected by both the Waterview project and the first phase of $875 million of road widening along the Northwestern Motorway.

That project is expected to claim another 83 homes.

Agency board chairman Brian Roche, announcing the Waterview route change yesterday, said a concerted effort had gone into developing a project design to minimise impacts.

That, combined with a better understanding of local geology, had allowed the agency to shorten the route, while making the tunnelled section deeper and longer.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said that although he felt for the owners of all affected properties, he was pleased the community could have more certainly about the future.

"There are no easy options here but I believe this fine-tuning of the alignment goes further towards easing the concerns of many, while being cost-effective for New Zealand," he said.

Subject to land designation and resource consents to be sought next year, ahead of four years of construction to start in 2011, a single bored tunnel will extend beneath about 55 per cent of a realigned 4.35km route between Richardson Rd in Mt Roskill and the Waterview interchange with the Northwestern Motorway.

Much of that will be under Oakley Creek, rather than beneath a long stretch of Great North Rd, which would have faced considerable disruption under the earlier plan from construction of a "cut-and-cover" tunnel.

Although some of that road will still need cutting under the proposal, that will be mainly north of Oakley Cres.

A major change will be the removal of a 150m section of open motorway in Avondale Heights, between a bored tunnel to the south and a covered trench to the north.

The tunnel will also extend about 250m south of what was earlier planned, further into Alan Wood Reserve, although the Friends of Oakley Creek group remains concerned that much of the associated green-belt will be marred by an open road, to be ultimately joined by a proposed Southdown to Avondale railway line.

Mr Roche said building the tunnels further east and without a gap between them would be completed within the existing project budget.

It was "the most cost-effective option for constructing this section, while also responding well to concerns with the previous proposal".

The Transport Agency says it already owns 140 of the 205 properties now likely to be affected. Of the 65 it has yet to acquire, 27 would have been unaffected by the earlier proposal.

Although only three of those will need to be removed along Hendon Ave in Owairaka, with the remainder requiring partial land purchases from their rear sections, agency northern director Wayne McDonald said last night that all owners would be entitled to sell their properties.

That followed a challenge by Tunnel or Nothing group spokeswoman Margi Watson, a Waterview resident, for the agency to buy all affected properties to spare their occupants from being squeezed between Hendon Ave on one side and the motorway and future railway on the other.