Eastern route back on agenda

A scaled-down version of Auckland's eastern transport corridor has been revived after lying dormant since last year's local body elections.

Work on the multi-billion-dollar traffic project - renamed the Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative and no longer including a motorway component into Auckland city - could start as soon as September, if local councils and transport authorities approve a new batch of official recommendations.

The move has pleased former Auckland Mayor John Banks, one of the proponents of the original proposal, but it has angered residents living on the expected route, who say they will again have to cope with more uncertainty over the future of their properties.

The eastern transport corridor was the brainchild of Mr Banks and Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis, who originally proposed a grandiose $3.5 billion, eight-lane, 27km highway from eastern Manukau to central Auckland.

The plan sparked outrage when it was announced that up to 1200 homes would be demolished or otherwise adversely affected during its construction.

It was thought to have been scrapped after the centre-left City Vision and the anti-motorway Action Hobson group gained a majority on Auckland City Council in October's local body election.

But a new report by project director Grant Kirby to the eastern transport corridor steering group has reignited the proposal.

However, it will no longer include a motorway into central Auckland.

Instead, the project would be comprised of a public transport component in Auckland, and highway and roading improvements through Manukau.

Manukau city councillor David Collings, who chairs the steering group, said a toned-down version of the corridor was being discussed by the councils, Transit NZ, Land Transport NZ and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

"We are back on track working together," he said. "That doesn't mean it's all go or it's all off. But we're back around the table trying to get something achieved."

A decision on the final shape of the project was some way off.

Mr Banks said he was very pleased the corridor proposal was back on the agenda, but conceded a roading project on the scale of his original proposal would not be built in the near future.

"A causeway across Hobson Bay is a dead duck. It's not going to happen in the lifetime of this generation," he said.

"If I couldn't sell it, no one can."

Dick Hubbard, who supported a scaled-back version of the highway while campaigning for the mayoralty, said it was "hugely important" that Auckland and Manukau collaborated to deal with transport problems in the eastern suburbs.

However, he stressed Auckland residents had no reason to fear the grand highway project would be reprised.

"Absolutely categorically the motorway link across Hobson Bay and up to Glen Innes from the CBD, that's not on ... So there's no need for anyone to have any nervousness about that in any shape or form."

But the prospect of a revived eastern corridor project has upset homeowners in Manukau whose houses and property values could still be under threat.

Pakuranga resident Alan McGehan said he was strongly opposed to the transport corridor being built near the Gossamer Dr home he has lived in for 22 years. But he was even more upset at having to wait 12-18 months while project plans were debated.

"There's a lot of uncertainty, especially for old people," he said. "Everybody would like to know, is it going to happen or not? And when?"

- HERALD ON SUNDAY