The $4b answer to traffic jams

By MATHEW DEARNALEY, transport reporter

Aucklanders have been offered a partial solution to their transport woes - but it could cost almost $4 billion.

Transport consultants yesterday nominated a preferred route for most of a 27km eastern loop expressway for cars, trucks and buses from Manukau to central Auckland.

As many as 1200 homes could be bulldozed or affected to some degree.

The cost of the project, on which Auckland City Mayor John Banks has staked his political career, has ballooned from $460 million in a 2002 study to between $2.8 billion and $3.2 billion, depending on which entrance it makes to the central city.

A "worst case" price-tag for what Mr Banks and Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis want to be a public-private investment partnership drawing heavily on road tolls could be as much as $3.9 billion.

There was no indication yesterday how much tolls could be.

The variations depend on whether the expressway crosses Hobson Bay to meet Tamaki Drive - which would be substantially widened by land reclamation to take eight lanes of traffic - or goes under Parnell through a 3.5km tunnel.

Mr Banks prefers the tunnel option as less environmentally disruptive, although it would add $400 million to $600 million to the cost.

The expressway would also make connections to the waterfront and the Northwestern and Northern Motorways more challenging, particularly with a 90-degree turn in a spiral junction called a gyratory.

Planners claim about 80 per cent of heavy port traffic would choose the eastern route for a faster getaway, although only a fifth of general vehicles would be siphoned off the Southern Motorway.

They promise big cuts in travelling times, but the route across Hobson Bay would give drivers their only lawful chance to hit 100km/h, as limits along other sections would generally be 80km/h, dropping to 60km/h around Pakuranga.

The number of lanes would also vary, but a bus lane is recommended in each direction and there would be at least two general vehicle lanes.

A steering committee will receive another report on funding possibilities before deciding between the options in the next two months.

The consultants ruled out routes along Kepa Rd in Orakei and close to Mt Wellington Quarry - where high-density housing is planned - as too socially and environmentally problematic.

Traffic would go straight up the environmentally sensitive Purewa Creek instead, although on an elevated expressway which the consultants say would not cut into the cemetery where former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon is buried.

A bridge across the Tamaki River to Farm Cove near Pakuranga has also been discounted, in deference to routes to the north, south and west of the Panmure Basin.

Although about 1200 homes would be bulldozed or otherwise affected, Mr Banks said many other residents could now feel "a lot more relaxed".

But Stop the Eastern Motorway (Stem) lobby group said it was ludicrous to expect to reduce congestion by giving commuters a motorway competing along the same corridor as buses and trains.

The corridor would follow train tracks from Auckland to Panmure.

Stem spokesman Richard Lewis said this would not spare Auckland the degradation of vehicle congestion and a busway next to a railway was "economic and transport-planning madness."

Auckland City councillor Bruce Hucker, head of the City Vision team, said Mr Banks' prescription for congestion was "like offering relief from obesity by telling you to loosen your belt".

Dr Hucker believed the expressway would swallow money desperately needed for other projects which "go somewhere", such as the $1 billion completion of the SH20 link to the Northwestern Motorway.

But Northern Employers and Manufacturers' Association chief Alasdair Thompson said the route was an excellent choice at a price which was "not much" compared with the $1 billion a year that congestion cost Aucklanders.

The bridge on the north of the Panmure Basin would be duplicated for one bus and one general vehicle lane in each direction, and another bridge would be added on the southern side for eight lanes of expressway traffic and "enhanced walking and cycling facilities".

Traffic lanes would be sunk into trenches through the Glen Innes town centre, winning praise from the Business and Economic Research consultancy, which says the project would spur economic and community growth.

Director Kel Sanderson said the sunken corridor would encourage above-ground pedestrian, cycling and vehicle links between developments such as Auckland University's proposed "Innovation Park" and the community.

He predicted the population of Glen Innes and Panmure would double to about 60,000 by 2030, largely triggered by greater accessibility through the corridor. Gross domestic product could rise $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year.

From Pakuranga, the corridor would go east down a widened Ti Rakau Drive before turning south along Te Irirangi Drive, where two bus lanes would be added to the existing four general traffic lanes.

Although Mr Banks wants Auckland's motorway network completed within 10 years, the eastern project could soak up more than half the $6.62 billion the Government has promised the region in that time for transport.

But he said the Government must put more money into the pot because of the country's dependence on Auckland to "get moving".

The Eastern Transport Corridor

Length: 27km, from Manukau to central Auckland.

What is it: Varies from two to three vehicle lanes in each direction, and a dedicated buslane along the entire route, joining double or triple rail tracks from Panmure to Auckland.

Financial cost: $2.8 billion to $3.2b with Parnell tunnel option but could rise to $3.9b in the "worst case".

Environmental and social cost: About 1200 homes demolished or otherwise affected, visual and noise pollution including through the Purewa wetland, although tunnel option would avoid the latter.

How it compares

Waikato Expressway: A $500 million highway between Cambridge and Mercer

Transmission Gully, near Wellington: At least $245 million on an alternative route into the capital

Orewa to Puhoi motorway: Known as Alpurt, and budgeted at $160 million

Project Aqua: Meridian Energy's $1.3 billion energy scheme beside the Waitaki River.

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Full map of recommended Eastern Corridor route