Waterview Primary School in Auckland will be demolished and replaced to make way for the country's largest motorway project, the Transport Agency confirmed yesterday.
The 62-year-old school is to be demolished over the summer holidays and lessons will be held in temporary buildings next year while its replacement is built, for an overall project cost to the agency of almost $10 million.
Early word of the development, which supplants plans to soundproof existing classrooms at a cost of about $8 million, has sparked an urgent call from parents involved in a heritage project for archival material and recollections from past students and staff.
Project leader Carla Martell said yesterday they had tracked down about 20 students who attended the school from when it opened in 1950 to service what was then a new housing estate, and hoped to invite them and other past students back there before the demolition starts.
She said there was a lot of sadness surrounding the loss of the school.
