 I was asked to give a lecture on the AMETI project to Masters in Planning students at Auckland University, who are investigating urban design aspects of the Tamaki Transformation project. I wanted to give a bit of the planning history and put what's happening there in a political planning context....
|
 As far back as 1946 the then Ministry of Works had designs on the corridor for a new highway. The goal was to connect the suburbs of Tamaki with Auckland CBD. There were also plans for suburban rail improvements at the time. This graphic I have borrowed from www.transportblog.co.nz.
|
 And the De Leuw Cather work in the 1960's continued the idea of an Eastern Highway - which was clearly marked on their planning maps.
|
 This image taken from Auckland Council's GIS system shows the lay of the land today - and highlights the fact that a transport designation has been in force along most of the proposed highway route for a long time. Much of it is green space. The Eastern Rail line occupies some of the corridor.
|
 From 2002 to 2004 Mayor John Banks floated the idea again of the Eastern Motorway. He even had designs on Ngataringa Point (where I live) for a tunnel. But the main point of this slide is to show the alignment of the proposed Eastern Motorway - connecting Tamaki suburbs with Auckland CBD. Regardless of what happens along the way - how many houses might be removed and so on.
|
 Various resident groups rose up in opposition. Particularly the residents around Hobson Bay who did not want to see that little bit of paradise damaged by such a huge corridor. They made up this computer image of how the whole thing might look running through Hobson Bay. This was the start of strong opposition to Mayor Bank's project. In fact it directly led to his downfall, and to the election of a number of new councillors to Auckland Council in 2004. They reversed the Eastern Motorway Project, and out of this emerged AMETI.
|
 Considerable planning efforts were made to change the emphasis of the project, to promote public transport, cycling and pedestrian amenity. I sat on the South Western/Eastern Corridor Steering Group for 3 years (as ARC's representative) from 2004 to 2007, and advocated for the need to integrate land use planning with changes to transport. This approach was generally supported and appreciated at the time. However Auckland City Council did not handle related plan changes at all well, and the Panmure community in particular became angry, organised, public meetings occurred, and eventually Auckland City Council backed off significant aspects of a residential and commercial intensification project (Plan Change 59 and Plan Change 142).
The AMETI project went into recess for a time. It had become very expensive too. What was clear to me throughout, was that traffic engineers from Auckland City and Manukau City had long ago prepared engineering drawings for road widening projects through and around Panmure and Glen Innes. They were keen to get them built. It was always a case of "we need to widen the road to decongest the traffic - and then we'll fix public transport..."
|
 Last year Auckland had local government amalgamation, and the whole AMETI project got tipped into the Auckland Transport CCO. Auckland Transport has been working hard on the project and in April had an open day down at Panmure where various transport designs were shown. I was amazed to see that we now have an "AMETI ROAD". A new road is proposed to decongest traffic. A number of huge "Manukau City" type interchanges are proposed. As shown here. Concern is being expressed about how the public transport dimension will work - for example there is an existing rail service: how will it be interconnected with a proposed busway? Or will it compete? Will a new bypass road draw custom away from public transport infrastructure...?
|
 Around Panmure the design is interesting as shown in these images. A box section is proposed - local arterial road above local arterial bypass below. It is unclear how long this elevated corridor runs but it seems to be 500 metres or so. You can see the cross section proposed. It looks like a creative option, but it's hard to escape the conclusion that "AMETI ROAD" will act as an Eastern Highway. High traffic volumes, and massive severing effects on local communities of Panmure and Glen Innes. Politically what seems to have happened is this: The Eastern Highway idea has never gone away. It keeps getting reborn in different guises. Auckland City Council had a serious attempt at integrating land use planning with transport planning in the mid 2000's, but mis-managed it, not helped by leaky building crisis played out in the headlines. Reaction by community against crappy medium density housing. Then we had amalgamation, and the silo of Auckland Transport created. It has picked up AMETI - but along the way the need to integrate the project with land use changes risks being overlooked.
I understand there is a forum of some kind where Auckland Council officials sit down with Auckland Transport officials - but this has all the hallmarks of a project where the road builders have all the money and all the cards. It will be the residents of Panmure and Glen Innes who risk losing out in the long term. They are quiet now because no-one is trying to push medium/high density plan changes on them.
These projects do take time. It is essential to bring the community along - not for the ride - but to ensure the best overall outcomes are delivered. AMETI needs to be about integrated outcomes. Auckland does not need another traffic sewer.
|
 And of course no presentation about transport planning at University is complete without a few words from Mumford.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment