There are some interesting updates on the Waterview Connection in this month’s agendas of the Auckland Regional Council Transport & Urban Development Committee and the Auckland City Council Transport Committee. Before I specify the details, remember that this is the kind of information that would not be publicly available under the proposed Super City legislation relating to Auckland Transport.
Let’s start with the ARC:
I must admit that the costings associated with this project still confuse the heck out of me. First we had the four-lane tunnel that was going to cost apparently $2.77 billion, then we had the cheaper option that was going to cost $1.4 billion but involve plenty of nasty cut & cover and take heaps of property, then we switched back to something near the first option but for the price of the second, and now it seems that the Waterview part of the wider “Western Ring Route” project will be even cheaper than previously thought, but that the SH16 upgrades will be more expensive than previously thought. What on earth is going on?
I certainly look forward to learning a bit more about this at the “expo” in late February. I hope that NZTA have a clue about what’s going on, because it certainly doesn’t seem like they do from here. Furthermore, in order for the full Notice of Requirement documentation to be completed by mid 2010 there are going to be some very very busy people. I’m guessing the final documentation will be a bit of a mess – half of the work done for this alignment, a bit of the work done for a previous alignment all lumped together.
Now for what Auckland City Council have to report on the project:
As I have said previously, this new alignment certainly is an improvement. However, I do not some concerns about the potential impacts of this new alignment on the designated Avondale-Southdown railway corridor. The report above says that the rail designation will have to be shifted to accommodate the motorway, which basically means that KiwiRail will have to go through a pretty ugly process of redesignating the rail corridor, potentially taking out houses, simply because the motorway has effectively stolen their right-of-way. Designation changes can be legally challenged, as they effectively have to go through a similar process to a resource consent application.
What if the designation alteration for the railway line gets turned down in the environment court or something like that? What if a concerned local resident argues that nobody’s ever used the Avondale-Southdown rail corridor in 60 years, why the heck should KiwiRail be allowed to realign a corridor through their house that probably won’t be used in the next 10-20 years? That’s a pretty strong argument against the rail designation, all caused by the motorway’s alignment.
Maybe it won’t be that complicated and fraught. But what if it is? What if we lose the rail corridor?
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This is why Kiwirail should be getting off their arse to get the project started. I think the easy part from Mt Albert to Hillsbrough should be built now or at the same time as waterview and have it operate it in a similar way to the Onehunga branch until they can work out the best way to link the two for frieght to use(the bridges on the existing SH20 extension have been designed to fit the railway line under them).
As for the Pt Chev interchange it is a real shame that the ARC don’t see the importance of making SH16 an RTN so there won’t be any space left under the ramps connecting SH16 to SH20 to allow for a busway or future railway. Is it likely any group would challenge this part of it in the environment court?
Matt I imagine that the Campaign for Better Transport will make a lengthy submission on the Waterview Connection, including mention of at least future-proofing the Waterview interchange for an RTN along SH16. However it’s pretty difficult to require that if nobody’s even thinking about putting a busway along the northwest motorway.
KiwiRail seem utterly hopeless at long-term network planning.
Could you remind us please of the business case for an Avondale-Southdown rail link.
Extending the rail link from Mt Albert south to Hillsborough I can see the point of, but what market(s) would be served by the Southdown link?
If the port at Marsden Point develops into a major one, and the rail line to it is built (that route was recently designated) then there might be a lot more freight trains coming along the western line. The last thing you want is have a ton of freight trains passing through what will be a rather busy Newmarket junction. The main freight yards are in Southdown. Building the line would allow freight trains to bypass all the southern line and some of the western line, most importantly they wouldn’t have to pass through Newmarket.
Also I think this is really terrible, it’s not really saving any houses from demoliton. No houses are being saved really. It’s just that rail transport is getting screwed over horribly in favour of a motorway by making KiwiRail have to deal with all the problems at a later date. Problems they didn’t cause. The rail designation has been in place before any houses were built and before any motorway was thought of. Clearly Steven Joyce isn’t as over the “road vs rai” debate as he claims to be.
You won’t be sending many containers north without daylighting a few tunnels…
Under the new CCO (we won’t be telling anyone anything) model when would people find out they are losing their homes in this project..? Could we OIA monthly meeting minutes till they get sick of it and start posting them online..?
In conjunction with other projects, the Avondale-Southdown Line could be useful. It could provide a rail link from west Auckland to the airport, and eventually allow a train route circuit of the isthmus.
Indeed – this fixation with Rapid Transit Network (RTN) only making sense when it is suburb to CBD is stupid to start with. While the idea of Avondale-Southdown is freight initially, there’s also a lot of people living south of SH1 and SH16. People use trains if they have the option…
You could start off with it being a mixed route (= all the NIMT freight, plus maybe half-hourly commuter services). That said, nobody will ever do it unless rail grows a lot more yet in Auckland. So what is important now is to protect the designation, to keep that option open. The actual building will not happen for quite a while yet, I am afraid.
I think that a New Lynn to Manukau City train, via the airport, would be reasonably popular.
As would Mt Roskill to the central city via the inner western line. The tracks could support a number of routes and would make the system a real ‘network’ rather than a series of purely radial lines.
How much would it cost to put the line from Mt Albert to Hillsborough for now while we decide on the best way to get the line between Hillsborough and Onehunga? The distance is about 5km however once SH20 is completed then most of it would be pretty easy as most of the bridges are already designed for the railway line so surely would cost less than putting it without the motorway works having been done.
There are a couple of things I can see needing to be done.
1. A new junction next to Pack n Save in Mt Albert, (doesn’t need to be as complex as Newmarket)
2. An bridge over the tracks at New North Rd
3. Changes to the Dominion Rd, reconfigure the ramps and bridge to go over the railway corridor (this could be done properly for the Sandringham Rd/Maioro Rd ramps as part of Waterview)
4. About 5km of track formations and double tracking
5. 2 -3 suburban stations
While I don’t know exactly how much it would cost surely it would only be around 200m as unlike Manakau and New Lynn there are no trenches or major obstacles to overcome. Traveling from a station at about Dominion Rd would probably take about 35 minutes to get to town, up to 10 mins less with a CBD Tunnel. At present MAXX states this journey by bus is in the 40-50 min range.
One problem is there isn’t actually much provision for the line with the SH20 works. Wherever you see ‘future-proofed for rail’ you should read ‘not made entirely impossible for rail to be put in the corridor, but not made easy either’.
Add in the new issues of having to demolish houses for the rail line becuase the motorway has been built in the rail reserve and it starts looking pretty expensive… making it maybe only worthwhile to do the whole thing.
Nick – I’m not saying its good that the railway designation gets moved into houses however between New north Rd and Hillsborough the only houses that would need to go would be around Hendon Ave. I hope that NZTA are required to buy them as a result of the move so it is still easy for rail in the future
“Wherever you see ‘future-proofed for rail’ you should read ‘not made entirely impossible for rail to be put in the corridor, but not made easy either’”
Have you actually been back and seen the SH20 extension that has already been done? Between Sandingham Rd and Hillsborough Rd all the bridges have enough space under them or a separate span wide enough that the rail line could fit beneath them (although some may need the ground level dropped slightly). For this section the only big bit of work would be Dominion rd as the ramps sweep off the motorway on a low gradient and there doesn’t appear to be a provision for the rail line under it. This means for the majority of this section of the line building it would be fairly easy and would put pressure on the government to join the missing link between them.
The Hillsborough to Onehunga section would be much more tricky and costly
I really think NZTA need to buy those affected houses now as part of the motorway project, otherwise they are just ripping off the rail reserve and leaving it up to Ontrack to sort out the mess (and weather the storm of bad publicity) in the future.
I saw the extension recently from the motorway, I didn’t have the chance to have a poke around on foot however. It looks to be an easier job than say putting the busway along the northern motorway, but they certainly haven’t done things like formed the rail bed or built the on ramps and the like with the line in mind. It seems to be just a case of leaving the right amount of width in the corridor and making the bridges a little longer.
Quite simply if houses need to be taken for a railway it will not happen..! If this 60+ year rail designation is nicked say goodbye to the SAL forever methinks…
Maybe someone should see if David Shearer can make an issue of it in Parliament. He seems to ask quite a few written questions to do with the Waterview connection.
It seems like something Shearer would be concerned about….
Nick R – You are complaining about the Motorways taking rail land therefore making it more expensive for the rail project than the roading project, then you go on to complain about the Motorway not funding the rail routes although it has just spent extra money from it’s budget allowing a route for them, (“but they certainly haven’t done things like formed the rail bed”).
I think you better pick which is best, either they both help fund each other or they both fund their own works.
There is actually quite a bit of cost in providing the extra width to allow for rail, and as long as that is provided it is fair future proffing. The arguement should be why the link wasn’t provided for within the budget or scope of works, not just future proffing but right down to laying the tracks, if this was included in the price, even if the tracks were set to be laid at a later date, the contractor and consultancy would have had more interest in laying at least the bedding so that when they returned it would be far less re-establishment fees and reworks, and to gain maximum profit without having to deal with rising costs.
Joshua, I don’y know your issue with Nick, but to me the issue is very simple.
This route has been designated for rail long before motorways were “funding” rail projects.
It’s very simple…this land is for a future rail and is in effect, KIwirail land and if any “roed people” build on it I assume Kiwirail can take them to court. Thus legally they MUST build around it. ..that’s my assumption .
It’s ridiculous this whole business, it’s being screwed up just like the eden park debate was.
Good assumption but wrong… Kiwirail will give it up in a second if they think Joyce will take their $90M a year of funding (which he has already made noise about)…
BTW, when will this “Expo” about the Waterview Tunnel and SH16 projects be? End of February? That is about now – how about some announcement?
Or will the expo happen in a broom closet of Council, with the light switch broken, hidden behind a sign saying “Beware of Tiger”, and be announced in the March editions of City Scene?
Ingolfson – Of course it will be announced, on the day of the expo when everyone already has plans so can’t get there. Perhaps it will be held at up the SH18 open day/walk
Maybe they will hold it in Southland, or something, at an NZTA conference which just happened to coincide date-wise. Just for cost-saving reasons, of course. Value for money 😉
Well, I know this isn’t on topic, but one unintended positive
from improvements in eden park is that people will want to take the train..because access by car is so bad..kind of funny eh?
I don’t know about wcfinal day..but there will be other big games at eden park just before and after world cup that kingsland will
be teaming with people…hence more pressure to build CBD tunnel….hence pressure to reroute freight from the western line thru THIS PROPOSED LINE southdown/manakau. so I guess I apologise for the “eden park debacle” not all bad.
It is an excellent question about when that Waterview Connection expo will be held. I suspect there are some extremely busy people at NZTA changing the plans around at the moment.