Auckland council runs out of money for roads

Planning director Dr Jill McPherson said yesterday that going to the next stage of notifying the project would leave the council liable for property purchases of between $760 million and $970 million – money it just could not afford.

"We just haven't got that sort of money. If it is ever constructed it will have to be a regional or national project," Dr McPherson said.

The decision is a potential major blow for the project and Auckland City Mayor John Banks who has staked his mayoralty on turning the eastern corridor into a motorway by 2010.

It comes two weeks after the preferred route was narrowed down to two options.

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