Leave tower where it is, says Unitec

Community groups and Unitec are clashing over where to put the ventilation tower for the Waterview motorway project. Photo / Dean Purcell

Auckland tertiary institute Unitec says an alternative site suggested for a large motorway emissions tower would hamper plans for a new road it wants built to its Mt Albert campus.

Chief financial officer Paul Conder told the board of inquiry considering Transport Agency applications for the $1.7 billion Waterview Connection motorway project that the institute's development plans included an access road for buses, cyclists and pedestrians across Oakley Creek.

The route would meet Great North Rd opposite its intersection with Herdman St in Waterview.

That is where the Eden Albert Local Board and community groups want the 15m to 25m venting stack for the two motorway tunnels to be built, rather than on the site proposed by the agency next to Waterview Primary School on the other side of Great North Rd.

Although an Auckland Council landscape consultant has told the inquiry he prefers the agency's proposal, the council's parks, recreation and heritage forum has recommended support for the alternative site.

Mr Conder said that although a tower at that location would not block the new access road, it would be in the way of a merger lane needed for buses to turn left without having to stop at traffic lights.

He agreed under cross-examination by Transport Agency lawyer Cameron Law that there would be a risk that the tower would be seen as a "marker" to Unitec's campus.

But he acknowledged to Douglas Allan, lawyer for several community groups, that Unitec would need to consult BP over the access route as it would cut through a BP fuel station's exit point on Great North Rd.

The board also heard from KiwiRail about land along the route of a proposed new section of surface motorway through Alan Wood Reserve in Owairaka, some of which is designated for a Southdown-to-Avondale railway line which could be built between 2031-40.

Lawyer Lucy de Latour said the route was important to KiwiRail, even though it had not been a priority.

KiwiRail had therefore reached an agreement with the Transport Agency to swap rail-designated land to form two realigned corridors, one for the motorway and the other for a railway line alongside it through the reserve.

Ms de Latour said KiwiRail accepted that adding the railway line might "potentially" affect some remaining residents in the neighbourhood, but any cumulative effects on top of the motorway would have to be assessed later, if and when a new rail designation was sought.

The five-member inquiry board chaired by Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook will resume the hearing on Monday.