The government has announced plans for the New Zealand's biggest
roading project in Auckland.
The government will investigate a public private partnership to progress a controversial multi-billion dollar motorway extension to unclog Auckland's roads.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen made the announcement about the Waterview Connection on Thursday during his economic strategy speech.
Transit and the government have confirmed the tunnel as its preferred option.
The $2.5 billion Waterview road and tunnel connection of the Western Ring Route will stretch five kilometres below the suburb of Mt Albert and connect through the suburb of Waterview to the north-western motorway.
It is part of a 48-kilometre motorway providing an alternative to State Highway One - bypassing Auckland to the west and linking Manukau City to Albany via Waitakere.
The ring route is estimated to cost $3.2 billion and road tolls have been considered to help pay for it. To close the $800 million funding gap, tolls of up to $10 a time were being considered for motorists using the route, allowing it to be completed by 2015.
In April last year, Transit was forced to rethink its toll strategy following a public backlash during consultation, but Transport Minister Annette King said on Thursday that motorists could be tolled for using the tunnel.
She says tolls have not been ruled in or out for the Auckland project.
While feasibility of involving the private sector is being looked at, the project will go ahead and is scheduled for completion by 2015.
Some Mt Albert residents have already been notified that their houses will be demolished because of the proposed tunnel, or the extension of State Highway 20.
Abhinav Vaidya, whose family have been renting a house in Mt Albert for the past few years, says they recently received a notice in the mail saying that their home would be demolished in five years.
Another resident says she prefers the option of an underground tunnel rather than road work which could destroy a large Mount Albert park.
"The park is used a lot, for soccer games and lots of different people come down...it's become really nice," says Mt Albert resident Sarah Abrahams.
Transit says the ring route will provide a bypass around the CBD for the large volume of traffic that travels across the region each day. It claims it will make travel times shorter, provide faster access to Auckland Airport and reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.
The Automobile Association has welcomed the announcement saying it brings it one step closer to having a State Highway One alternative by 2015.
It says that along with easing traffic congestion, it will also deliver "significant economic benefits for New Zealand and the Auckland region".
However, the Green Party is strongly opposed to the proposal, saying the more than $2 billion would be better spent on higher priority transport issues.
Green MP Keith Locke says the motorway plans also sends mixed messages.
"Just when the government is getting the credit for the Northshore busway, which is getting people out of their cars, it's going to throw $2 billion into a motorway project that is going to put people back into their cars," says Locke.
Lock says the Greens will continue to support community
opposition to the Waterview project.
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