The Highway Action Trust asked the Centre to prepare a submission to Transit New 
Zealand challenging the decision to construct the Waterview
connection, the final link in the Western Motorway route as Driven Tunnels 
rather than the more cost effective "at-grade" option.

The Centre prepared a full submission which can be viewed at our Centre website .

 If by the time you look it has moved from the front page just 
enter Waterview in the "search" slot.

We believe the full submission is worth reading for anyone interested in the 
strange decision making process now dominating Transit New Zealand.
However, we were then asked to prepare a "short form" of the submission in the 
form of "Five questions which must be answered".

The five questions are:


      Question One

·         Why does Transit New Zealand favour the proposed Driven Tunnel Option 
through Mt Albert, even though it comprehensively fails to address the amenity, 
mobility and efficiency requirements of the general motoring public, who will 
actually pay for the project, and  make most use of it?


      Question Two

·      Why has Transit New Zealand not even considered the option of an at-grade 
motorway through Mt Albert, similar to that now being built through Mt Roskill, 
and which would cost only a fraction of the Driven Tunnel Option?


      Question Three

·      Why does Transit New Zealand favour a Driven Tunnel Option which cannot 
readily adapt to future growth in demand by adding lanes, by adding future 
connections, and which closes off the option of a second harbour bridge joining 
Pt Chevalier to the North Shore?


      Question Four

·      Why, for such a critical link in the road network, does Transit New 
Zealand favour a Driven Tunnel Option which is highly vulnerable to future 
natural disasters,(such as earthquake, volcanos and tsunami) and is also prone 
to frequent closure because of accidents or breakdowns, which are likely to 
cause injury and death?**


      Question Five

. Why has Transit abandoned the at-grade solution, which was their preferred 
option up until 2000?”


Of course the underlying question is, "Why is Mt Albert so different from Mt 
Roskill?" 
There are no prizes for getting the right answer.

This decision is bad enough, but you will see from the attached supporting 
material that the choice of tunnels closes off the option of a bridge at Pt 
Chevalier, and hence dictates the decision to build the next set of crossings 
next to the existing harbour bridge. Such a proposal keeps funneling traffic 
onto spaghetti junction rather than developing a direct high grade motorway 
connection between Hamilton and Whangarei. 

Such a regional highway would avoid central Auckland and hence promote growth 
and development in the north, west and south.

The central planners just keep driving those nails into the Auckland regional 
coffin.

Those of you who live outside Auckland might like to think what that extra $1 
billion or so, spent on a tunnel in Mt Albert, could do to improve your own 
highways.

The html and pdf – both the same- documents filed on this website in Issues-Transport

 include some back-up commentary to explain what is going on.