World Cup bridge to cost $2m

Plans are advancing for a $2 million temporary bridge linking the Viaduct Harbour with the Tank Farm in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Auckland City councillors are expected to approve a design tomorrow for a 6m wide pontoon bridge capable of carrying up to 14,700 pedestrians an hour.

The council has put back plans for a permanent $47.3 million Te Wero bridge from the eastern end of Te Wero Island to Halsey St until 2016.

In the meantime, it wants to build a temporary structure for the cup to provide easy access from the city to a new $32 million marine events centre on the old Team New Zealand base in Halsey St and the first retail and entertainment precinct at the Tank Farm.

Sea + City, the public body developing the 29ha Tank Farm, is spending $107 million on entertainment and retail facilities around Jellicoe St, North Wharf and a park based around the old cement silos - to be known as Silo Park.

Waterfront programme manager Jane Simmonds has put up three options for a temporary crossing. They include a ferry service costing $1.57 million, a simple pontoon bridge costing $1.42 million and a higher spec pontoon bridge costing $2.07 million.

She has recommended the higher spec pontoon bridge that would be raised 2.5m to 3.5m above the water level.

It would have an opening section 36m wide and the raised feature would allow small vessels to pass underneath without the need to open it.

Last summer, the council installed a pontoon bridge across the Viaduct Harbour over the two weeks of yachting's Louis Vuitton Pacific Series. There were a total of 57,425 crossings and 746 openings for marine traffic.

Auckland City and Auckland Regional Holdings - the investment arm of the Auckland Regional Council - have agreed to pay $1 million each for a temporary structure across the Viaduct Harbour. City development chairman Aaron Bhatnagar said there were no plans for the temporary pontoon to become permanent, but it could be in place until 2016 when Te Wero bridge was built.

Meanwhile, a two-stage design competition for Queens Wharf is expected to begin within three weeks.

Everyone from school students to professional architects will be able to submit plans for the proposed Queens Wharf do-up in the first stage.

The submission period will be followed by a two-week judging process in which five designs and three teams will be selected to advance to the second stage and produce a developed design within a $76 million budget. The entire process is expected to be completed by the end of October.

Auckland City has $56 million budgeted for the project. Auckland City, the Auckland Regional Council and the Government are finalising funding arrangements for the remaining $20 million to turn Queens Wharf into a cruise ship terminal and "party central" for the Rugby World Cup.