Subscribe to RSSWaterview Now $2b: Greens Upset
The Greens say the Waterview connection is a waste of money - and will cost more than first revealed.
Today, NZTA today called for tenders to build the Waterview Connection – which is called the country’s most expensive and complex roading job ever. The tenders are being called before consents have been granted.
And it was revealed that NZTA’s Board has now approved funding of up to $2bn to complete Auckland’s Western Ring Route road.
The Greens say that the minister of Transport Steven Joyce said last year that the project would only cost $1-1.4 billion.
Green Party MP David Clendon called the Waterview connection “a waste of at least $2 billion of precious taxpayer money on a bad project that is left over from the 1950s.”
“Pouring billions of dollars into a few kilometres of motorway and destroying a well-established community is the exact opposite of what we should be doing.
“It will lower property values and attract more cars into the city, condemning Auckland to more congestion and higher transport costs.”
The project will also be hard on the local community - who will lose precious parks and suffer from increased air and noise pollution. Children at the local Waterview Primary School will play on school fields right next to a motorway onramp that will carry up to 90,000 vehicles per day.
Greens' Russel Norman at local Waterview protest meeting last year
“With the Emissions Trading Scheme coming in today and oil prices trending upwards, this is the time to be providing Aucklanders with a viable and affordable alternative to the car,” said Mr Clendon.
“We need a sustainable vision for the future —the planned CBD rail loop from Britomart to Mt Eden would achieve many more benefits for less money and transform Auckland into a world class city with a 21st century transport system.
“Around the world cities are stimulating economic revitalisation by removing their urban motorways and creating liveable, vibrant neighbourhoods where there are better options for getting around and doing business.
“It’s not too late for this Government to show some leadership and stop throwing more money into an outdated and expensive project that won’t solve our transport problems.”
5 Comments
So after cutting out underground sections in Mt Albert in favour of an above ground motorway we’re back up at the cost an almost fully underground motorway would have originally cost.
I find this disgusting, they f**k around for a year and in the end loan Auckland 500 million for new trains yet at the stroke of a pen increase the budget for this motorway by 600 million.
“Children at the local Waterview Primary School will play on school fields right next to a motorway onramp that will carry up to 90,000 vehicles per day.”
That’s a public health disaster just waiting to happen (and in more litigious countries, a long-term lawsuit just waiting to happen).
Well, their parents could also vote for better public transport and drive less. They can sue themselves, maybe?
All those motorways aren’t some foreign invasion - they are the result of people’s transport choices, and their political apathy when it comes to searching for better transport.
rtc - from my understanding they have changed it again from that original route Labour had supported and it’s back to majority of tunnel, actually around the same amount as in Labour’s proposal because of public consultation, therefore bringing the price back up to around 2b again.
In the end this route is needed, and it’s not the fact that we are doing this more the priority it is given over other project such as the CBD Tunnel.
My understanding is that the $600 million extra is the result of the $2 billion covering the Waterview Connection and ALL the SH16 upgrade considered necessary to complete the Western Ring Route (in other words, the $800 million about to be wasted on widening the NW Motorway).
The $1.4 billion only covered the Waterview Connection and a smaller part of the upgrade to SH16 between Waterview and Te Atatu.