Pani Taiapa with her children Brodie, 6, and Anita, 4, at their Waterview home. Photo / Greg Bowker

Pani Taiapa with her children Brodie, 6, and Anita, 4, at their Waterview home. Photo / Greg Bowker

Pani Taiapa moved to her Waterview home from Henderson four years ago because it was just across the road from a school and kindergarten for her two young children - and handy to Auckland's Northwestern Motorway.

She became part of a close-knit community of Housing NZ tenants, and immersed herself in the life of the kindergarten and Waterview Primary School as Brodie and Anita - now aged 6 and 4 - joined their junior classes.

But the trio have found themselves casualties of Aucklanders' appetite for more motorways, as their home is one of 160 that Transit NZ announced on Friday are likely to be demolished if it digs a $1.89 billion set of twin two-lane tunnels between Mt Roskill and Waterview.

Transit and the Government say the bored tunnels - running for 3.2km, and 20m to 40m deep - will cause far less social and environmental disruption than an earlier proposal to run a covered trench for up to 90,000 vehicles a day through the sensitive Oakley Creek catchment.

They say a trench would have meant destroying at least 300 more homes, while costing between $1.7 billion and $2 billion, once a new 4.5km motorway section opens in 2015 as the final link in Auckland's 48km western bypass.

But their words are little comfort to Ms Taiapa and her neighbours in Herdman St off Great North Rd.

They face eviction next year if Transit confirms its route preference in April, before seeking a notice of requirement giving it compulsory property acquisition rights.

Although Housing NZ has promised to try to find new homes suitable for all residents of the more than 100 of its properties likely to be demolished around the tunnel's two portals, both in Waterview and near the intersection of Richardson and Stoddard Rds in Owairaka, she is dreading having to make a fresh start elsewhere.

"Nobody is happy about it - we have got a beautiful community - some people are pretty emotional," Ms Taiapa said.

"We are a small community and we all look after each other. Our kids can ride down the road and every second house knows them and keeps an eye on them.

"We are all very close-knit and I am involved with the school and kindy, and coach the t-ball team."

One man called over her fence: "If they kick us out of our houses, we'll have to sleep in the tunnel."

Waterview Primary principal Brett Skeen expects to lose up to 22 of his 140 pupils from homes in the path of the motorway, and he is worried about noise and air pollution from tunnel portals just across Herdman St from the school grounds.