KEY POINTS:
Transit NZ is seeking more government funds to complete Auckland's controversial $365 million toll road between Orewa and Puhoi.
It confirmed last night that a new application for $26 million was on top of a grant of $180 million already approved as a direct government contribution to the 7.5km Northern Gateway motorway extension.
The rest of the bill for the road, due to open in nine months, is being met from a government loan of $159 million repayable over 35 years by tolls starting at $2 for cars and $4 for trucks.
Transit regional manager Peter Spies said the extra funding was not expected to increase the overall budget, which had been agreed with its construction alliance partners to include escalation costs.
But although the partners had hoped to make enough savings to forgo a need for more government money, cost hikes, such as for bitumen and diesel, had narrowed their expected margins.
A shortfall of up to $26 million - or 7 per cent of the project cost - has been revealed in an affidavit to the Environment Court from Transit chief executive Rick van Barneveld to support an application to extend the designation of Link Drive through Orewa as a temporary part of the state highway network.
Although Mr van Barneveld acknowledged the extra funding had yet to gain Land Transport NZ approval, the court accepted it would be "unlikely in the extreme" for the motorway not to be completed within a one-year extension of the designation, to April 1 next year.
The latest development follows confirmation by Transport Minister Annette King last week that an order-in-council, by which the Government agreed in 2005 that the project should be built as a toll road, had been changed to remove a requirement for her to be satisfied about its long-term financial viability.
Although she remained confident other toll roads would eventually be built to spread the burden of electronic collection costs, no other proposal was advanced enough to satisfy her "right now of financial viability over the long term in the context of a legal test ... "
Ms King referred to Rodney District's proposed $160 million-plus Penlink road to Whangaparaoa Peninsula as another likely contender, and longer-term possibilities such as Transit's $1.9 billion Waterview motorway tunnels as a third Waitemata Harbour transport crossing.
But she acknowledged the go-ahead for Penlink depended on the Government's ability to pass legislation for a regional fuel tax, a portion of which was needed for that project, but which National says it may consider annulling.
Auckland Regional Council's transport chair Christine Rose was concerned government support for regional fuel funds to Penlink was not being put to public consultation. Her organisation was having to consult ratepayers on a plan to devote its 5c share of a potential new tax of 10c a litre to rail electrification and other public transport needs.
She was concerned the Government was relying on a project as uncertain as Penlink to justify the financial viability of the Northern Gateway toll scheme.
But Rodney Mayor Penny Webster expressed confidence that the need for Penlink to unlock her district's development potential was such that it would be built, regardless of which party won this year's election.
Tolls opponent and rival mayoral candidate Hans Grueber called on Transit to abandon what he regarded as a costly and unnecessary new revenue-raising scheme, and to open the Northern Gateway with full government funding from the existing mechanism of national road taxes.
GATEWAY NORTH
* 7.5km motorway extension of SH1 from Orewa to Puhoi
* Likely opening date: January-February 2009
* Likely toll rates: $2 for cars; $4 for trucks
* Cost of road: $365 million, funded from loan of $159 million (repayable from tolls), and direct government grants of $180 million (already approved) and $26 million (yet to be agreed)
