Motorway plans must give way to nesting dotterels

By WAYNE THOMPSON

A row over resiting the nests of eight rare New Zealand dotterels could stall high-priority Northern Motorway improvements for two years.

Only 1500 of the dotterels are left in the country and four nesting pairs live on the Shoal Bay foreshore alongside the motorway and its Takapuna feeder route, Esmonde Rd.

At low tide, the birds feed on the mud flats of the broad bay, with its extensive shell banks where hundreds of wading and shorebirds roost.

Conservationists say the bay's dotterels have persisted in their traditional homes despite the intrusion of man.

They say the birds are worthy of kind consideration in plans for reclaiming parts of the foreshore for the southern end of the North Shore busway and upgrading of the Esmonde Rd motorway interchange.

Independent planning commissioners for the Auckland Regional Council agree.

The commissioners have ordered that no work can be undertaken on any part of the interchange or busway south to the Harbour Bridge until alternative nesting sites have been established.

The birds must be settled in new homes in the shellbanks out in the bay during February to June, when they are not nesting.

Once that is done, motorway works must wait a year to ensure that the birds are content and don't return to the construction zone.

A group of five bird experts will decide whether more nesting sites are needed, which could mean further delays to the works.

Transit New Zealand and the North Shore City Council say the $22 million interchange project is high priority because Esmonde Rd interchange has south ramps onto the motorway only.

This creates a bottleneck for southbound motorway traffic and puts pressure on local roads, says the chairman of the council's works and environment committee, Joel Cayford.

The motorway divides the east and west parts of the city.

Improvements would provide an extra motorway crossing by linking Esmonde Rd with Akoranga Drive and enable traffic to turn north onto the motorway from Akoranga Drive and Esmonde Rd.

Dr Cayford said the council would appeal to the Environment Court against the restrictive bird tag on the works approvals.

Because the council had received the commissioners' conditions too late to move the nesting sites this year, it could mean two years' delay in improving Takapuna and Devonport access, as well as easing local congestion.

nzherald.co.nz/environment