Tunnels waste to be tested for beach

Environment Minister Nick Smith. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Earth and rock to be excavated for the $1.4 billion Waterview motorway tunnels project is being considered for use in a coastal land reclamation proposed for Onehunga.

The Transport Agency said yesterday that material to be dug from Waterview would be tested for suitability for the $28 million Onehunga reclamation project, in which it is joining Auckland City as a funding partner.

Its regional highways manager, Tommy Parker, said the timing of the two projects supported the concept.

The idea has been proposed by the Onehunga Enhancement Society, which believes up to 600,000 cubic metres of the 1.4 million cu m of material to be taken for Waterview could be used for an 11ha reclamation plan aimed at restoring beaches destroyed in the 1970s by the Mangere Bridge motorway project.

Although the Transport Agency has offered $18 million for coastal reclamation purposes, Mr Parker said the project was being led by Auckland City, which has committed up to $10 million.

The council intends holding a ceremony on the Onehunga foreshore this morning, marking its signing of a funding agreement with the Transport Agency.

Auckland Mayor John Banks will be joined by Environment Minister Nick Smith and Maungakiekie MP Sam Lotu-Iiga, a long-time supporter of the reclamation project.

The ceremony will be preceded at 5am, weather permitting, by the opening of all four southbound traffic lanes across Manukau Harbour, marking the agency's completion of a $230 million project to double the motorway capacity on what was previously a notorious bottleneck for vehicles travelling between Auckland and the airport.

Although three of the lanes were opened in July, the original Mangere Bridge needed resurfacing for northbound traffic before the full motorway capacity could be used.

Society chairman Jim Jackson said the community had waited more than 30 years for the signing of the reclamation funding agreement.

He understood three short-listed contractors would have until November to submit bid and prices, the most favourable of which would be recommended to the new Auckland Council for acceptance in February before resource consents could be sought.

The project would have a target completion date of 2014.