By PAUL YANDALL
HAMILTON - Transit New Zealand says it will push ahead with plans to build a $90 million eastern Hamilton bypass despite the Hamilton City Council withdrawing its support for it.
At a special council meeting on Tuesday evening, councillors voted to withdraw their support for the Horotiu-to-Cambridge bypass.
The turnaround follows the release this month of a report that criticised Transit for not fully informing the council on the implications to the city of an eastern route.
The report, commissioned by the council and written by Waikato University academic Frank Scrimgeour, called for more information on the eastern bypass and recommended that other routes be looked at.
But Transit's regional manager, Colin Knaggs, said work would continue on the bypass because the report was flawed and misleading.
"There's nothing in the report that suggests we should stop.
"If they want us to look west then they have to convince us to do so - the report doesn't."
He said feasibility studies on a possible Hamilton bypass began in 1996 and a final eastern designation is expected in May.
"If they want us to stop ... we're looking at another two to three years to study the other options."
Mr Knaggs said only four or five kilometres of Transit's proposed route came within Hamilton City's jurisdiction.
As well, the bypass had the support of both Environment Waikato and the Waikato District Council.
The city council had supported the eastern route since 1996, but passed a notice of motion - put forward by councillor Grant Thorburn at the special meeting - to investigate and recommend another preferred option.
Mr Thorburn said the council would ask Transit for more information on the eastern plan and to begin work on other options for the route.
"The city doesn't have a position on what the correct route is.
"The point is, why [is Transit] so desperate to get a designation in place without exploring the options properly?"
But a spokesman for the regional branch of the Road Transport Association, Bill McLeod, said the council would be wasting time and money if it decided to explore alternative options to the eastern route.
"I think common sense should prevail here ... East is the realistic option."
Transit refuses to budge on bypass
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.