Forum reveals depth of divisions over eastern highway

By BERNARD ORSMAN



A trucker used a tube of toothpaste to highlight the urgent need to get on and build the eastern highway when groups for and against the controversial project appeared at a public forum in Auckland yesterday.

"That toothpaste you used this morning did not appear on the supermarket shelf by magic. It probably had at least three truck trips to get there," said Graham MacKinnon of the Northern Regional Road Transport Association.

Mr MacKinnon said building the eastern highway would reduce congestion on other roads and allow the trucking industry to do what it was paid to do - move goods around the city in a cost-efficient and timely manner.


The association was one of about 10 business groups lobbying Auckland City councillors to get on and build the 26km highway as an alternative to the "over-burdened" Southern Motorway.

Transport committee chairman Greg McKeown organised the Town Hall forum ahead of a meeting tomorrow where councillors are expected to decide to bring the highway into the city across Hobson Bay.

Work has also started on scaling back the project to a four- or even a three-lane highway across Hobson Bay by doing away with bus lanes, a cycleway and walkway from Glen Innes to the city. This is expected to significantly cut the $3 billion-plus pricetag by reducing the number of Auckland City properties needed for demolition as recommended by Opus International Consultants.

The Hobson Bay Residents' Group made clear it would fight any road across the bay and supported the existing rail line as the only sustainable transport across Auckland's waterways.

The Hobson group's co-ordinator, high-profile lawyer John Haigh, QC, said it was inconceivable that investment and economic developments in Auckland could be dependent on a motorway that wrecked Purewa Creek, Orakei Basin and Hobson Bay.

"What is the point in focusing on alleged and dubious economic advantages when it comes at the expense of the permanent loss of our waterfront icons of this city?"

Mr Haigh said all the parties needed to pause and look at alternatives rather than take a divisive approach.

Parts of the highway are planned to run through the Maungakiekie electorate and its member of Parliament, Mark Gosche, said the project in that area was enormously expensive and obtrusive.

"I believe the Opus solutions to be excessively expensive to the point of being grandiose."

But there were no signs of compromise between pro-roading lobbyists, who urged the council to "get the bulldozers rolling", and public-transport advocates.

Mayor John Banks made his position clear with a press release containing 14 pro-highway comments and no anti-highway ones.

One of the strongest calls for action came from Ports of Auckland chief executive Geoff Vazey, who said Auckland's congestion worsened every year and the region was in grave danger of suffering further economic decline if key infrastructure plans were not urgently implemented.

Of the 33,000 container truck movements a year between the port and the industrialised southeast, half took an eastern route rather than the Southern Motorway.

The eastern highway would provide an alternative route to Auckland's southeast and relieve pressure on the overburdened Southern Motorway, Mr Vazey said.

John Craig, professor of environmental management at Auckland University, said it was wrong to think that the cost of public transport was greater than the cost of private transport in Auckland.

University research showed that the cost to society from things such as pollution and accidents was $19.4 million for public transport and $547 million for private transport.

Professor Craig said Pakuranga and Howick residents would be the major beneficiaries of the eastern highway but most water and air pollution would occur in Auckland City's eastern suburbs.

The forum also heard a plea from the Parnell Baths Support Group, which said the highway would wreck the historic baths, built in the early 1900s as a replacement for reclaimed bays and renovated in the past two years.

Spokeswoman Sue Monk said noise from 10 lanes of cars, buses and container trucks would be excessive and create a wall of exhaust haze, and reclamation of Tamaki Drive would affect the tidal waters.

List of submitters at eastern highway public forum

BUSINESS GROUPS

Foodstuffs Auckland

Ports of Auckland

Auckland International Airport

Automobile Association

Employers and Manufacturers Association

Heart of the City

Northern Regional Road Transport Association

National Road Carriers

Road Transport Forum

Auckland Chamber of Commerce



COMMUNITY & OTHER GROUPS

Parnell Baths Support Group

Parnell Community Committee

Eastern Bays Community Board

Meadowbank Action Group

Parnell District School Board of Trustees

Auckland City Residents & Ratepayers

Hobson Bay Residents' Network

University of Auckland

Stop the Eastern Motorway

Urban Issues Group, Institute of Architects

Campaign for Better Transport

Remuera Community Group



POLITICIANS

Graeme Easte, Western Bays Community Board

Mark Gosche, Labour MP for Maungakiekie

Keith Locke, Auckland-based Green list MP

Christine Fletcher, mayoral candidate



INDIVIDUALS

Roger Dunn

Hugh Chapman

Dame Barbara Goodman

Greg Liggins

Peter Nolan

Coralie van Camp

Clark Thomborson

Paul Shanahan

Jack Henderson

John Hynds

Dan Chappell

Helen Guthrey

Chris Carr

David Willmott

Don Silvester

Brian Roe

Chris Grove

Melanie Scott

John Broadbent

Coralie Beckham