Tunnel backers driving ahead

By WAYNE THOMPSON

The Auckland Regional Council says work should start on a motorway tunnel under Victoria Park before firm plans for paying for it.

The council and the Auckland City Council want a tunnel instead of Transit New Zealand's planned widening of the viaduct over the park.

The viaduct carries 165,000 vehicles a day between the Harbour Bridge and city.

The cost of adding two lanes to the western side of the viaduct is estimated at $105 million.

An additional $175 million would be needed for the tunnel option.

Transit last year decided against the tunnel on the grounds of extra cost.

But yesterday, the chairman of the ARC strategic policy committee, Ian Bradley, said the council had engineered a breakthrough with Transit.

He said the council would ask Transit to proceed with resource consent applications for the tunnel.

The extra expense was expected to be filled through a portfolio of money-raising schemes from the Mayoral Forum. These include a debt-servicing fund, regional petrol tax and charging motorists extra to come into the central business district.

"There has never been any doubt that the community wants a tunnel but the challenge has been to see how this could be achieved," said Mr Bradley.

In the past few weeks the council had taken the significant step of bringing officials together and there was now an exciting way forward, he said.

"The possible two-to-three-year time frame for the resource consent and designation process enables the funding method to be identified and agreed to by the parties."

Mr Bradley said he was grateful for the support he had had from Transit.

No comment was available yesterday from Transit officials.

The Herald understands the tunnel option may have been sold to Transit on the basis that it would take longer to win resource consents for an unpopular viaduct project.

Transit officials will take the proposal to its board meeting next month.

An ARC report to yesterday's strategic committee said there was a risk that regional and city ratepayers could be called on to make good any failure of the portfolio idea to deliver the money.

But this would be a matter for consultation in the annual budget plans.

Despite potential concerns, said the report, it was expected that the extra money would be found through the Mayoral Forum suggestions.

The report said local body officials and politicians held workshops this year to discuss how to pay for some of a tunnel to lessen the impact of works on the bridge-to-city roading project.

By last month, the workshops had a consensus payment idea - getting money from Infrastructure Auckland, Transfund, regional, territorial and localised rates, and an amount every year from subdivision development and reserve contributions.

A taskforce was set up to further develop the option with members from the regional council, Auckland City Council and Transit.

By this time, the Mayoral Forum had reported its work on a portfolio of funding sources, but this excluded regional and city council rates.

The taskforce saw potential in the portfolio idea.

Transit was asked to explore a heads of agreement that "urgent best endeavours" were used to secure the extra money for the tunnel along the lines suggested by the Mayoral Forum.

On this basis Transit was requested to provide an undertaking to proceed with consent applications for a tunnel.

Story so far

* 2001: Transit NZ floats $70 million-$110 million plan to add two lanes to the viaduct

St Marys Bay residents instead propose a tunnel to take the motorway under the park.

* July 2002: ARC backs tunnel, Transit reviews options

* November 2002 Transit rejects tunnel calls, saying one would cost between $230 million and $290 million.

* December 2002: Tunnel costs disputed, ARC spearheads opposition to viaduct