Home owners not rejoicing, despite scaled-down highway plan

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Jennifer Paul is not getting excited, just yet, about the news that her townhouse at the bottom of Parnell Rise will no longer be bulldozed for the eastern highway.

Jennifer Paul, who combines a wearable art business with raising a young family from her home in Parnell Terraces, had got used to the shock of possibly losing her home for a huge viaduct linking the highway with the Grafton Gully motorway.

But after Wednesday's announcement to scale back the project, about 1000 property owners can rest easy.

Only about 260 homes and businesses will be bulldozed, compared with 1270 under the previous plan.

Jennifer Paul said the highway had "thrown a spanner in the works" to one day selling her home, part of a four-year-old, 81-terraced housing development along The Strand.

"Fingers crossed they are considering another option. It is still a shame for people but it is better to affect less people if something has to go ahead," she said.

Property owners whose lives have been thrown upside down by the various plans will get a letter next week from Auckland City Mayor John Banks and Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis outlining the latest developments. It is likely the letter will be different for those people whose properties are no longer required and those whose properties are still needed.

The possibility for a new road from Gossamer Drive across Pakuranga Creek to Cryers Link Rd has meant 30 new properties will be needed in Gossamer Drive - and these people will be informed by letter next week.

Meanwhile, Stop the Eastern Motorway (Stem) executive officer Richard Lewis said motorists would be shocked to learn of major snarl ups expected where the highway goes from two-lanes in each direction between Mt Wellington and Purewa Creek to one lane across Hobson Bay.

Kohimarama and St Heliers residents would also find Tamaki Drive reduced from two lanes in each direction to one lane in each direction between Ngapipi Rd and the junction of the motorway at the Outboard Boating Club, then plunge into town with no logical escape routes, he said.

Eastern transport corridor director Grant Kirby has admitted the stretch between Tamaki Drive and the city would remain a traffic bottleneck as traffic crossing Hobson Bay merged with Tamaki Drive.