Tunnels tipped for Puhoi extension

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Transit NZ is expected to announce today that it will tunnel through a hill above Waiwera for its motorway extension to Puhoi, rather than cut deep into a bush corridor.

This will allow a lower bridge than earlier planned across the picturesque Waiwera Valley and reduce engineering and environmental obstacles to building a motorway interchange on the Puhoi side of Johnsons Hill.

Twin tunnels about 250m long will avoid a cut up to 57m deep through a bush and wildlife corridor connecting the hill to Wenderholm Regional Park.

They are also likely to be less congested than a 40m-high viaduct, which would have allowed only one lane of traffic each way until a duplicate structure could be built in years to come.

But a tradeoff will be fewer connections at the interchange, limiting access to Waiwera for northbound traffic.

Visitors from Auckland are likely to have to turn around north of the motorway, or use the existing coastal highway from Orewa to reach the thermal resort, raising questions about the validity of a Transit survey of the strength of local support for a toll road

Opponents of the project are meanwhile querying the timing of earthworks, which began soon after public hearings opened this week in Orewa.

As commissioners heard submissions on tolling the road, diggers cut a 100m vehicle track up a hill at the Orewa end of the proposed 7.5km extension.

They had finished yesterday by the time Auckland Regional Council member and heavy transport operator Brian Smith complained in a personal submission that not a sod had been turned on the long-delayed project "and a lot of people are sodding upset".

Mr Smith may have been pleased to learn of the activity behind the town, but Waiwera resident Armie Armstrong said it showed Transit's determination to push the $300 million project through regardless of consultation needed for Government approval.

Transit regional manager Wayne McDonald said the track was for trials for the final design of the road, to find the best lime mixture for stabilising foundation clay.

Even supporters of the road have vented anger at the hearings, which continue next week, against what they call a broken promise by Transit to build it without tolls.

Before being allowed to charge cars $1.80 and heavy vehicles twice as much, Transit must persuade Transport Minister Pete Hodgson tolls are supported by "affected communities", defined as those living, studying or working nearby.

But Mr Smith said all New Zealanders would be affected by the precedent set for tolling new roads.

Retired engineer and Snells Beach resident Bruce Burton said he would accept tolls to cut 4.5km off his trips to Auckland and avoid the existing coastal highway, but it would be unjust if just one region had to pay extra for road use.

Red Beach architect Colin MacGillivray said he supported toll roads but Transit had picked the wrong project to start with, as it would not attract enough traffic to pay its way.

He quipped that Transit would have to pay him $1.80 to use the road, as the coastal route, which must be kept open as an alternative toll-free highway, would be shorter for traffic coming off the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

Dr Wendy Pool of the Manu Waiata waterway restoration group said new transport legislation meant a toll road had to meet a higher test of environmental sustainability than the Resource Management Act.

She said Transit had not met that test, because it intended filling in rather than bridging 22 of 33 stream tributaries along the route at the expense of endangered native fish unable to swim up long and steep culverts, and was compromising possible future drinking water supplies.