Transit tests Victoria Park for tunnel

Contract staff drill earth samples in Victoria Park, the first step in Transit NZ's project to build a north-bound motorway tunnel. Picture / Martin Sykes

Drilling has begun in Auckland's Victoria Park to test the land through which Transit New Zealand wants to dig a motorway tunnel.

Transit hopes to lodge a notice of requirement with Auckland City Council next month for its $370 million project to build the one-way tunnel under the park and to widen the motorway along the St Marys Bay foreshore to the harbour bridge.

The 600m "cut and cover" tunnel would offer motorists three new northbound underground lanes, keeping the existing four-lane viaduct over Victoria Park for southbound traffic.

An extra lane each way will also be added above ground between the tunnel and the harbour bridge.

Transit regional manager Richard Hancy said his organisation hoped to add the lanes without straying outside its existing motorway designation, either on the seaward side or beneath the sensitive cliffs along St Marys Bay.

"We will be making space available from the median strips and at this stage we hope we won't have to go outside on either side," he said.

By keeping within existing boundaries and gaining community support, Transit would reduce chances of resource consent delays.

St Marys Bay Association chairman John Hill said his organisation supported the tunnel in principle but would be keen to ensure the cliffs were not cut into.

The project has been brought forward by one year, for construction to start in 2008 and for the tunnel to open six years later.

This follows strong lobbying by local authorities and business groups for work to start as soon as possible, to maximise benefits from $195 million of improved road links in the central motorway junction, due to be ready by the end of next year.

Transit last year bowed to local pressure for a tunnel, having previously favoured a replacement viaduct costing about $160 million unless regional funds could be found for the more expensive option.

The Auckland Regional Council and city councils on both sides of the bridge have accepted the tunnel as a compromise for now, although there will be calls for a duplicate to be built in 30 to 40 years.

Mr Hancy said the notice of requirement was to establish a "footprint" for the project, and he expected public hearings both for this and more detailed resource consents to be held next year.