Billion-dollar Auckland tunnel canned

BY MICHAEL FIELD

A planned five kilometre long tunnel under Auckland's Mount Albert electorate has been cancelled by the Government, which says it is too expensive and will instead build on the surface.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said the Waterview Tunnel would have cost $2.77 billion while a surface road will cost up to $1.4 billion.

Opposition Labour Party transport spokesman Darren Hughes has condemned the decision saying that the National Government was condemning Mount Albert to second best.

The tunnel is a major issue in Mount Albert, which is holding a by-election next month to fill the vacancy opened up by the departure of former prime minister Helen Clark to a job with the United Nations.

Labour candidate David Shearer is campaigning for the tunnel while National's Melissa Lee yesterday dismissed it in favour of a surface road.

Green Party candidate Russel Norman said the Government was going to bulldoze a motorway through the electorate.

"It is 1950s dinosaur thinking to hammer a motorway through the heart of a residential area," he said.

Dr Norman raised the issue in Parliament, saying the Government's options would affect poor people in Mt Albert.

"We're not putting this motorway through the richest area -- it's not King's College they're going to put a motorway through -- it's going to be Waterview Primary School, it's a decile two school," he said.

ACT's candidate, John Boscawen, welcomed the Government's announcement and said a tunnel would have been an extravagance the country could not afford.

Mr Boscawen is proposing his own alternative road route which he says will minimise the impact on residents.

 

Mr Joyce said that the tunnel would have been funded by borrowing but the surface option, being cheaper, could be funded through the Government's National Land Transport Fund.

He said 240 households would be notified that their houses would be purchased by the state.

The Transport Agency website says 500 properties would be lost to a surface motorway.

The state has already purchased some homes.

The tunnel, under Avondale, Waterview and the Oakley Stream, would have been the crown jewel in a 48-kilometre Western Ring Route motorway linking Manukau, Auckland, Waitakere and North Shore, bypassing Auckland City and the Harbour Bridge.

It would have cost around $540 million a kilometre.

Mr Joyce said the Waterview Connection surface road options were being considered by the Transport Agency and all would be wide enough to provide for easy widening to three lanes in each direction.

The Agency would announce its preference tomorrow for a surface road and where it would go. Two of the three options under consideration involve elements of tunnelling.

The most complex part of the surface motorway involve crossing New North Road and the adjoining railway line.

A surface road does not have planning consent to go ahead yet and Mr Joyce signalled that even more discussion would have to take place before the final shape of the motorway was decided.

He said he was sorry the people of Waterview faced further uncertainty while the design of the road was decided.

"My preference is for a Waterview Connection that can be delivered at a fair price to the country with minimal ongoing impact on the community."

However Mr Hughes said the people of Mount Albert want "a deep tunnel" and the Government was not prepared to fund it.

"Instead it will go with a compromise that provides second-best solutions for the people of Mt Albert and the future needs of Auckland."

Mr Hughes said Mr Joyce had been exaggerating the tunnel costs while Ms Lee had issued a public statement ahead of the Government announcing that the tunnel was off.

"Melissa Lee's candidacy has now been thoroughly undermined by Prime Minister John Key who is effectively dismissing her views as irrelevant," Mr Hughes said.

"Mr Key knows the people of Mt Albert are overwhelmingly opposed to the surface option, and that Melissa Lee is completely out of step with local opinion.

"She only wants a surface road. Her position is more extreme than the Government's.

"It is extremely disappointing that the Government is not prepared to go ahead with the deep tunnel option that would have had the least impact on residents in the area as well as meeting Auckland's future needs.

"Labour is committed to the best possible solution for Auckland, in this case a deep tunnel. National is clearly happy to settle for second-best for the people of Mount Albert."

- © Fairfax NZ News