Single Resouce Consent Hearing for SH20 Project

in General by Jon C — December 22, 2009 at 2:39 pm | 0 comments

Auckland Business Forum chairman Michael Barnett, expects a government announcement to enable a single resource consent hearing to ensure construction on the Waterview SH20 project starts mid – 2011.

The  Contractors’ Federation, also welcoming the decision,  wishes construction could start earlier.

It says the industry had been engaging with the minister to ensure the allocated local road and minor project funds were released as soon as possible and in their entirety.

Labour’s Mt Albert MP, David Shearer, says the change in the SH20 plans to now build a 2.4km tunnel east of its preferred route is close  to what Labour had originally proposed for the route.

Shearer campaigned in the Mt Albert by-election over the SH20 issue, which the government announced details of at the start of the campaign. The MP says that the new route means that while 40-50 extra homes and a park will still be lost when measured against Labour’s proposed road, the total number of homes marked for demolition has now been reduced by about 200

“I am delighted for the Mt Albert community that Mr Joyce has finally seen sense. But the real shame is the huge uncertainty he has caused local residents. Instead of putting all his energy earlier in the year into orchestrating a spin campaign to trash Labour’s option, Mr Joyce should have spent the time doing his homework and looking closer at the plans.

The Labour MP claims the government concocted figures to inflate the cost of Labour’s option to give the impression their route would save the taxpayer money.

“This has been shown to be a sham. The question now are how much is his new route going to cost?”

Tags: Auckland Business Forum Contractors Federation David Shearer Labour minister of transport Steven Joyce Waterview