Two jobs, no problem - Fletcher

Fletcher Construction says it's well able to lead both the mammoth Waterview motorway project and the Christchurch rebuild. Photo / Natalie Slade

Fletcher Construction is confident it can lead New Zealand's largest roading project while also taking charge of much of Christchurch's rebuild.

The Transport Agency (NZTA) yesterday named a Fletcher-led consortium as the preferred team for building the half-tunnelled 4.5km Waterview motor-way in Auckland within a $1.4 billion budget.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce said he understood Fletcher had the capability to handle Waterview and Christchurch, but noted it had partners to help complete the new motorway by 2016.

Fletcher Construction's engineering general manager, Graham Darlow, who is chairman of the successful consortium's board, said the company would rely heavily on McConnell Dowell Constructors and Japan's Obayashi Corporation as tunnelling partners.

Other principals in the Well-Connected consortium are Parsons Brinckerhoff, designer Beca and geotechnical experts Tonkin and Taylor. The group will also have five "sub-alliance" partners.

Mr Darlow said Fletcher had completed the duplicate Manukau Harbour motorway crossing and New Lynn rail trench and, once the Victoria Park motorway tunnel opened early next year, would have no major project in Auckland apart from Waterview.

He acknowledged Waterview was something of a "lifesaver" for Fletcher, which wanted the first spade in the ground before Christmas.

But there was a lot of design work to do, even though his team and another shortlisted consortium led by Leighton Contractors had worked on the project since late last year.

The priority was to finish that work and order a tunnel boring machine from Europe for delivery in 12 to 18 months.

Despite the big budget, Mr Joyce said, the project would be far more cost-effective than the completely underground proposal of the previous Labour-led Government.

It will include two 2.4km three-lane tunnels between Owairaka and Waterview, where a three-tiered interchange will be built between State Highway 20 and the Northwestern Motorway.

That motorway will also be widened by 2016 between St Lukes and Te Atatu under contracts yet to be tendered, for which the Transport Agency has a remaining budget of about $600 million.

Mr Joyce said a fast-track national consent process and decisions about construction partners just two and a half years since the project was re-scoped was "reasonably unheard of in New Zealand transport history."

He said about 100,000 people a day plus freight were expected to travel through the tunnels within 10 years of completion.

Agency chief executive Geoff Dangerfield said the project would require underground work on an unprecedented scale in a country where road tunnels were rare.

"It won't be easy, but by constructing the project in an alliance between the NZTA and the private sector, we're ensuring this project will be delivered as quickly as possible and with the best value for money."

Auckland Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse said she looked forward to the motorway drawing up to 6 per cent of traffic away from local streets, making them safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and she praised the responsiveness of the consent process to community concerns .

She thanked the minister for the Government's investment in Auckland but, referring to the $2.4 million central city rail tunnel proposal, said she may need to talk to him about another possible use for the motorway tunnelling machine.

But Australian transport expert Paul Mees, commenting from a Wellington conference organised by Labour and the Greens, said Auckland had more motorway lanes than almost any other city in the world and was an example of a "what hasn't worked".

Public transport was the answer to its serious traffic congestion.