Puhoi motorway bill leaps 20pc

Last week’s start to the motorway has stopped to avoid hindering holiday traffic. Picture / Richard Robinson

Construction costs for the long-awaited tolled motorway extension to Puhoi are now expected to soar to $365 million - more than 20 per cent higher than indicated just four months ago.

Transit New Zealand chief executive Rick van Barneveld told the Environment Court in Auckland yesterday that the new figure included an "escalation" provision absent from an estimate of $300 million he gave in August.

Mr van Barneveld conceded that Transit had been unable to gain the Government approval it hoped for in time for yesterday's hearing, to toll motorists to pay almost half the cost.

Such approval would now be delayed until at least April because of a Government decision to appoint a working party including Treasury and Transport Ministry officials to examine tolling systems suitable for the Puhoi motorway and other potential projects.

But he told the court that a $20 million advance on a $180 million construction grant from Land Transport NZ was adequate to start the road, which happened last week.

Although a burst of work beside State Highway 1 stopped on Friday, in line with Transit policy to avoid interfering with the main roads during holidays, a project spokesman said outside the court that this would resume on January 10.

Transit was under pressure to report sufficient progress on the project to the court yesterday, or face having to close a temporary link route through residential Orewa to highway traffic early in February.

But the court granted a six-month extension, until August 1, after being assured there was nothing token about last week's start.

Judge Laurence Newhook said he and commissioners Ian McIntyre and Ross Dunlop would try to issue a judgment stating their reasons this week, and would have some "interesting" comments.

Lawyer Russell Bartlett, representing three Orewa property companies anxious for an end to highway traffic clogging local streets, said Transit had failed to give the court an irrevocable commitment to completing the 7.5km motorway extension.

"In this endless game of pass the parcel, no one is claiming to be financially responsible for this work," he said. "The case now has the characteristics of a paternity and maintenance hearing."

Mr Bartlett said those who consented to allowing traffic to use the temporary Orewa route felt "ill-used", and sought another hearing in April to review progress.

He asked Mr van Barneveld whether he realised non-bureaucrats living outside Wellington regarded the formation of a working party "as a sign things have stopped".

The Transit chief insisted the $20 million advance was enough to push the project forward until April, when his agency hoped to gain up to $80 million more to mobilise workers and resources for a productive start to the next construction season.

He denied a suggestion by the judge that to claim the project had already started was "putting a bit of spin on it", but said Transit would need four more full construction seasons after this summer for the road to be finished by autumn of 2009.

"This is not provisional earthworks or drainage - it has gone as quickly as possible and not in any go-slow or half-baked manner," he said.

But Mr van Barneveld also revealed that just over $5 million of the initial grant was budgeted to shut down the project if no more money became available in April.

He acknowledged to Mr Bartlett that Transit had no contingency plan in case the toll option was refused.

A director of the Cabra Holdings property company, Ian Boocock, said after the hearing that he was "astounded" the estimated cost had almost quadrupled in eight years and there was still no Government commitment to building the road.