Transit wants $36m from Auckland

By JASON COLLIE transport reporter

Transit New Zealand wants Aucklanders to pay the extra $36 million it will cost to dig a motorway link for Grafton gully.

The scheme to link Spaghetti Junction with the Port of Auckland by cutting a ditch to the west of Stanley St is favoured by residents over the spectre of a viaduct for the area, but it is more expensive.

Transit project manager Colin Crampton said yesterday that the national taxpayer-funded roading body, Transfund New Zealand, would not pay the extra.

He asked Auckland City Council to apply jointly with Transit to Infrastructure Auckland for the difference.

Mr Crampton told the council's transport and roading committee that if the additional money could not be found Transit would have to return to the viaduct option or widening Stanley St to ease congestion.

It is estimated that the sunken highway would cost $130 million, compared with $94 million for the viaduct.

A council-commissioned review puts the cost at $123 million and $97 million respectively.

Mr Crampton said: "We believe there's a justifiable case to pursue [the sunken option] through an alternative funding source, but if that is not available then the authority would pursue the two remaining options.

"Infrastructure Auckland has shown an interest in the public-good components and we believe that option has a number of these public-good components."

The committee referred the decision to the full council because it is a major transport link and because only three members were present yesterday.

However, it did recommend that the council ignore Transit's request and lobby the Government to allow Transfund to finance the option that would be most popular with the public.

It also recommended the council tell Transit the viaduct idea was "totally unacceptable."

Councillor Bill Christian said he did not think the viaduct was unacceptable, but committee chairwoman Catherine Harland replied: "Transit is asking the council for expressions of its preferences.

"It's not that just because we say it's totally unacceptable that it disappears off the table. We are just saying our preference for our city and the region."

She said Infrastructure Auckland would want the council to put millions in as well and she did not believe Auckland City ratepayers should be burdened for a project with region-wide benefits.

Activist Graeme Easte, who proposed the sunken highway, said there would not be such a big difference because he believed his proposal could be built more cheaply, and the viaduct would be more expensive than Transit estimated.

The Hobson Business Group told the committee it favoured widening Stanley St because that had the lowest cost and would provide the same traffic benefits.

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