KEY POINTS:
Auckland City has dropped its opposition to road tolls, hoping for the early completion of a $1.9 billion tunnelled motorway between Mt Roskill and Waterview.
A bid by minority City Vision councillors at a transport committee meeting to endorse the previous council's opposition to tolls to help pay for new roads was defeated on a casting vote by committee chairman Ken Baguley, from the ruling Citizens and Ratepayers.
"Transit NZ is very keen to get the Waterview Connection going," Mr Baguley said in reference to the largest missing link in the western motorway bypass network between Manukau and Albany, which the Government roading agency wants completed by 2015.
"So we should stay on the case, and there will inevitably be increased costs arising for the city."
Fellow C&R councillor Aaron Bhatnagar said that while he was not suggesting any rush to introduce tolls, it was very important to keep these in mind given a hefty funding gap for the Waterview project, which Transit expects to cost $1.89 billion in 2015 dollars.
But City Vision team leader Richard Northey said it would be unfair to charge drivers to use State Highway 20 when people elsewhere in Auckland enjoyed free passage, such as across the harbour bridge from North Shore.
"That is one of the inequities of tolling," he said.
"Although the western ring route has to have priority, I think 2015 is completely unrealistic given Government funding and think there is even higher priority for other projects through the region."
Even Transit itself dropped a proposal for charging tolls on the ring route last year, in recognition of heavy opposition both from the public and business organisations critical of its methodology and the prospect of heavy consequential congestion on alternative free routes.
But the concept was resurrected last month when the Government appointed a steering group to examine prospects for tapping into investment finance by building the 4.5km Waterview motorway section in the country's first public-private partnership for a major infrastructure project.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen said at the time: "We believe the private sector has much to gain from Waterview and that the entire community - and the taxpayer - could have much to gain by involving the private sector in its construction."
He said it would be difficult to complete the link as well as other Auckland transport projects by 2015 from fuel-tax revenue alone, and "obviously if there's a PPP [private-public partnership], then there's an issue around whether there's tolling as well."
The steering group, chaired by former Chief Ombudsman Sir Brian Elwood, has called for public submissions by April 11 on the best form of partnership "to ensure value for money".
Transit's preference for twin tunnels instead of more socially and environmentally disruptive covered trenches appears to be softening previous opposition from the Auckland Regional Council, which wanted the motorway built over a longer route through Rosebank Peninsula.
Although the council has yet to hold a decision-making debate on the new plan, transport committee chairwoman Christine Rose said after a presentation from Transit that the cut-and-cover aspect of the earlier proposal was one reason for its opposition to the Waterview route to the Northwestern Motorway.
"It's fair to say tunnels are the preferable option," she told Transit officials.
Regional strategy and planning committee chairman Paul Walbran said the new proposal addressed many of his concerns.
Although he believed the Rosebank route was the preferable alignment for drivers wanting to bypass central Auckland, he said the lack of a mid-point interchange for local traffic in the tunnels proposal was "a plus" for the project.
Transit principal project manager Clive Fuhr said new estimates indicated a partially-covered motorway costing $1.7 billion would not have been much cheaper than driven tunnels.
A fully-covered trenched motorway would have cost more than tunnels, at $2.1 billion, and the Rosebank route would have amounted to $2.7 billion.
Mr Fuhr said that although Transit recognised "some sensitivities" around Waterview's primary school and kindergarten, which will be close to the northern tunnel portals, the project would have far less social impact.
