There was some excellent news today for residents in the Waterview/Owairaka area that much of their hard work to get a better mitigation package out of NZTA for the impact of the Waterview Connection project seems to have been successful. The NZ Herald reports the following:
A board of inquiry appointed by the Government to oversee a fast-track consenting process for the country’s largest transport project has accepted their submissions on where vehicle emissions towers should be erected at each end of a pair of motorway tunnels.
The five-member board chaired by Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook has directed the Transport Agency to build a northern tower on the other side of Great North Rd from Waterview Primary School, which is next to its preferred site.
It also wants a tower in Owairaka at the opposite end of the tunnels to be built 70 to 80 metres southeast of the agency’s preferred site, away from a narrow chokepoint in Alan Wood Reserve.
I am particularly pleased that the ventilation tower at Waterview will be shifted away from the primary school and the nearby residential area. Although many expert air quality witnesses testified over and over again that the tower wouldn’t result in hazardous air pollution levels, I am sure that the perception that the tower would generate pollution would have been widespread. How comfortable would you feel about sending your five year old child to a school with a giant ventilation stack right next to it? While I remain worried that the tower will in some respects become the symbol for Waterview it seems less likely for this to happen with it being on the opposite side of Great North Road among a lot of large trees. The diagram below shows the different options considered for moving the ventilation stack/tower:
I’m not quite sure which of the three alternatives have been chosen (either 1 or 2, that’s for sure). If the above diagram is a little difficult to make sense out of, below shows an aerial of the area with the location of the alternative locations for the ventilation towers:
The BP petrol station is in the top left corner of the plan, to help orientate yourself.
With the southern stack and ventilation buildings, the proposed shift will also result in significant benefits – both as the building is shifted away from a narrow point of the Alan Wood Reserve (where it would have really really dominated the area) and also because the building is to be put largely underground. The diagram below shows the effect of the move:
The red dotted outline shows the edges of the building as initially proposed. The details of the access road in this particular diagram may well be incorrect, but what is obvious is that the building is to be largely underground (which is great as it sits in a park) and that the building is shifted away from the really narrow point of the reserve – freeing up more space for recreational activity.
Another excellent gain that the Board of Inquiry seem intent on requiring is in relation to the proposed cycleway linking up the Northwest Cycleway with the cycleway that runs next to State Highway 20 through Mt Roskill:
Other board directions include requiring the agency to pay $8 million towards a cycleway between Owairaka and Waterview.
All these additional requirements are going to add some serious cost to the project – something the NZ Herald article picked up on:
The agency told the board during its hearings that $11 million to $21 million in extra costs spent on moving the location of the tunnels’ southern ventilation building and partly burying an associated ventilation building could be better spent on other mitigation.
It estimated that building the northern emissions tower across Great North Rd from the primary school could add up to $29 million to the bill.
Overall I’m exceptionally pleased that the Board of Inquiry has required these additional mitigation measures. Waterview and Owairaka were really getting hammered by the project (and still do to an extent) while experiencing fairly limited benefits. The proposed changes should significantly reduce the negative effects of the project, while the cycleway will add a really important connection for our regional cycling network.
All the hard work the local communities put into this process seems to have paid off – at least to some extent.
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Bill McKay who a Waterview resident and faculty at the School of Architecture worked hard for this, the group have run up a big debt because of having to fight NZTA every step of the way to get these small concessions.
Thanks for the post, admin – Cycle Action Auckland was also very happy that the BoI seems to have followed the arguments we and other groups have brought forward regarding the cycleway’s role in open space mitigation (i.e. linking the parks and sports fields – and the suburbs in general – so that locals can better move between the various areas affected by the project, without having to use their cars).
While the BoI decision is actually still to be released, this all looks very positive.
Thanks Patrick!
The drawing above of the south end isnt quite the right one: it should be drawing 3 in J of Andre Walter’s rebuttal evidence. Pretty similar but less invasive, without that big trenched truck accessway.