Cmttee. recommends next steps for eastern corridor
MEDIA RELEASE
13 December 2004
Committee
recommends next steps
for eastern transport
corridor
Auckland City’s Transport and Urban Linkages Committee has recommended the next steps to progress the eastern transport corridor.
The recommendations follow an officer report reviewing the modified option prepared by Opus International Consultants in September 2004.
The report identified a need to improve transport choices and infrastructure in the east and south east of the city.
“There is a serious and urgent need to improve transport in the south-eastern suburbs of the city,” says Councillor Richard Simpson, chairperson of the Transport and Urban Linkages Committee.
“Massive growth is being experienced and must be catered for to unlock the potential along the Tamaki Edge, in the suburbs of Glen Innes, Panmure and Mt Wellington. This growth is creating additional demand for transport solutions, but a road across Hobson Bay is not the answer.”
The committee recommends closer collaboration with the newly formed Auckland Regional Transport Association (ARTA) to progress passenger transport initiatives.
“We are urgently seeking ARTA’s involvement
as a partner, along with Transit New Zealand and Manukau
City Council, to deliver comprehensive and co-operatively
agreed answers, offering new travel choices,” says Mr
Simpson.
As well as the removal of the roading component
across Hobson Bay, a revised brief for the project has been
proposed by the committee including:
- involving the
Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) to lead
passenger transport initiatives
- negotiating a new
memorandum of understanding between Transit New Zealand,
Manukau city and Auckland city councils and ARTA
-
continuing to protect the existing designations, retaining
land in the long term transport interests on Auckland
city
- developing the passenger transport components of
the corridor and not the roading components from Glen Innes
to the CBD
- investigating local road improvements along
the Tamaki edge to better connect with State Highway 1 and
the North Island Main Trunk Line
- confirming funding
requirements and sources.
The committee’s recommendations will be presented to the full council meeting on 16 December 2004.
Ends
Notes to Editor:
- The current phase of
the eastern transport corridor project is planned to end
when the project partners (Transit New Zealand, Manukau city
and Auckland city councils) choose the preferred option for
the development of the corridor. This is yet to occur.
-
Opus International Consultants presented a $3 billion option
to the project partners in March 2004. Auckland City
considered this option in June and rejected it with the
exception of the preferred route, requesting a downscaled
option be prepared.
- The downscaled or modified scheme
was completed in September 2004 and presented to the
project’s political steering group. Auckland City has not
considered the modified scheme.
- The council agreed on
the removal of the road component of the eastern transport
corridor between Glen Innes and the CBD at its meeting on 11
November 2004.
- Copies of the council officer’s report
reviewing the modified scheme are available at
www.aucklandcity.govt.nz or by contacting Janine Brennan
(details given above).
- Councillor Richard Simpson’s
opening remarks to the committee meeting are
attached.
Opening remarks by Councillor Richard
Simpson, chairperson, prepared for delivery at the first
Transport and Urban Linkages Committee.
10 December
2004
Today is a defining day for this committee.
In
a way, it’s Eastern Transport Corridor day.
It is the day
we save Hobson Bay.
But while we bury the idea of a motorway across a precious bay – a matter of celebration for some, disappointment for others – we do not bury our very real and most serious transport problems.
This must
also be the day, when we consider the future of the Eastern
Transport Corridor – that we do three things:
-
acknowledge there is a serious and urgent need to improve
transport choices in the south east
- acknowledge
massive growth is already underway there and must be catered
for, and
- urgently recruit the Auckland Regional
Transport Authority as a partner, with Manukau City and
Transit, in delivering comprehensive, co-operatively agreed
answers.
We must have the wit to:
- better move people
and goods
- enjoy the fabulous growth now underway and
at the same time
- make sure we keep this - make this -
a city worth living in.
We don’t need another three years of reporting. We have already invested millions to define the issues surrounding south-eastern transport.
What we
need now is action to deliver transport choices.
The
development is already on its way. It will not be
reversed:
- the population of Glen Innes, Panmure and
Sylvia Park will grow from 12,000 to 32,000 in the next 20
years
- up to 8000 people are going to be housed in Mt
Wellington quarry site
- Auckland University’s Tamaki
Campus is going to host 10,000 students
- the bulldozers
are already at work at Sylvia Park – the site of the
southern hemisphere’s biggest retail development.
- an
innovation park development has started – to provide another
up to 6000 jobs.
- additional commercial and residential
developments in Newmarket are planned, generating commuter
and household journeys and attracting visitor trips
-
peak period work related trips between the south east of
Auckland City and neighbouring suburbs in Manukau are
coming, along with
- greater freight, goods and
services movements to and from the south east, and
-
vehicle volumes on arterial routes and local collector roads
in the south-east are also going to rise.
The city, the region and the country cannot dodge the challenges this growth presents. It’s important that all of those involved in these developments embrace the rapid transit future and do not become anachronisms – irreversibly tied down to roads only.
Equally, we cannot dodge the view of voters who have said, let’s have the benefits of this growth, but let’s make sure it is achieved while delivering a system which allows us to move, while preserving our precious bays and natural form.
So today is a watershed day.
A defining day on how we will capture major benefits while delivering common-sense solutions.
After today, there’ll be an urgent need for ARTA to respond to a compelling invitation to join with us, with Manukau and Transit – to deliver co-operation and agreed answers.
I would like them to say yes to working together immediately. To making sure we have a comprehensive regional approach, which works right down to local level.
I would like to see some of those answers delivered this year. Others, we know, will take three. Auckland does not have the luxury of another 30.
Today we replace the motorway dreams of the 1960s, with a determined common-sense drive to cater for growth, make our place worth living in and worth leaving to the next many generations.
I invite you to join me in working for that during the next few hours, the next three years.
Ends