Regarding the summary of the costs and effects of the Southern pipeline project published by Voter Empowerment (Weekend Sun 10 Sept). I consider that this in fact understated the full implications of this proposal on the community and commence.
While it is possible to forecast that the eventual cost of the pipeline alone will be considerably higher than the $130 million quoted, the same calculation cannot be made for the side-effects (collateral damage) its construction will almost certainly have.
The pipeline, running over 15km from the Tauriko locality to Tauranga and on to Te Maunga, at Mount Maunganui, will be alongside some of the city's busiest arterials --- Oropi Road, Fraser Street, and Devonport Road, with traffic diverted to alternative routes.
I understand that (City Council gurus - consultants and engineers?) have advised (probably also understated) that pipeline construction in the city will take four years to complete, require closing some roads for a month, impose peak hour traffic delays of up to half an hour with vehicle queues snaking out over 5kms. Add to this more than 20,000 movements by big trucks to and from the excavations.
Given these factors, it is difficult to believe that at times city traffic will not become grid-locked, adding a further dimension of dissatisfaction and disruption already being faced by residents and business along the construction route. There can be little doubt that the ripple-effect of this will hit the central city and Fraser Cove commercial centres, and all businesses near the route. Residents too will be inconvenienced and disturbed.
A top priority for the new City Council must be to re-examine this project and determine if cheaper, less disruptive options exist to this vulnerable umbilical carrying unpleasant waste through the city and across the harbour. Logic should tell us, and incoming councillors, that this is not the best, most economic and practical plan, particularly with much of the Tauranga City's future growth destined for Tauriko, Pyes Pa and other locations in that general area.
Gill Kelly, Papamoa.