Auckland cycleway suffers a blow-out

The new cycleway under construction around the Mangere inlet. Picture / Greg Bowker

Difficult conditions around an old landfill beside Manukau Harbour in Auckland are blamed for an $810,000 blow-out to a multimillion-dollar cycleway between Southdown and New Windsor.

Auckland City Council's transport committee has approved an increase of $809,740 to a $2.5 million contract for the eastern two-thirds of the 12km cycleway, against protests of some members.

The Maungakiekie Community Board has also passed a resolution of concern to the council about its tendering process for the Pikes Pt to Onehunga section of the project.

An escalation to $3.3 million, including a contingency allowance, means the overall cost of the cycleway is likely to exceed $5 million once a 4km section through Mt Roskill is added.

But the eastern end is supported by a $1.44 million grant from the former Infrastructure Auckland and the council has applied for a Land Transport NZ subsidy towards an estimated $1.5 million to $2 million for the future stretch between Hillsborough Rd to Richardson Rd in New Windsor, across the northern slope of Mt Roskill's volcanic cone.

A council staff report said the first two months of construction on the Pikes Pt section had revealed variable quality in an existing pedestrian pathway and a requirement for more work than expected to provide a good foundation along a stretch of contaminated landfill.

That would include constructing a new 3m-wide concrete path over a gas pipeline alignment.

A design consultant had also under-estimated the cost of fencing through the contaminated area, the report said.

The off-road component of the cycleway is being built for sharing with pedestrians and was to have cost $1.455 million compared with an estimate of $802,266 for what is to be essentially an on-road facility between the Onehunga foreshore and Hillsborough Rd.

The council report noted that the proposed increase of almost $810,000 represented a variation of 55.6 per cent on the initial price for the off-road section.

Citizens and Ratepayers Now councillor Doug Armstrong asked why the difficulties could not have been foreseen and voted unsuccessfully to scale back the contractor's contingency allowance.

A political team-mate, Toni Millar, said the size of the overrun was "utterly appalling."

But independent councillor Bill Christian appealed for understanding over the "wild and woolly country" the contractor was trying to tame.

Passenger transport manager Stuart Knarston said the extra money was needed to ensure the cycleway stood the test of time and did not have to be renewed every few years because of an inferior substructure.

Maungakiekie Community Board deputy chairman Geoff Abbott echoed concern last night about the blow-out, which he noted was unfortunately not uncommon in the council's book.

However, Abbott said his board supported efforts to improve a shoreline which was the first view many visitors caught of Auckland.