Editing Eastern Transport Corridor (section)

=== Original designs ===
A strategy study in 2002 stated a need for a new motorway to be built in the corridor (as had been planned decades before) for a variety of reasons including the need to make suburban streets safer and less polluted. In March 2004, Auckland City Mayor [[John Banks (New Zealand politician)|John Banks]] proposed a motorway scheme through [[Hobson Bay]]. There was substantial community and political resistance to the scheme, largely due to the cost of the proposal (equivalent to four years of the entire country's transport funding budget) and the impact it would have on a number of established neighbourhoods, as well as areas like Tamaki Drive, the [[Parnell Baths]] and several environmentally sensitive areas.<ref name="WANTSLINK"/> However, there were also groups that defended it, citing the projected economic gains, and the benefit it would have on the traffic volumes on Tamaki Drive.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}} Banks proposed to underground large sections of the scheme (earning it the nickname 'tunnelway' amongst some commentators) and proposed to pay for the construction costs at least partly by selling Auckland City's 25% shareholding in [[Auckland Airport|Auckland International Airport]], and by charging a $5 toll.<ref name="WANTSLINK"/><ref name="TUNNELWAY">{{cite news|title=Keith Rankin: Auckland Traffic Blues|url=http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0111/S00095.htm|accessdate=30 December 2010|date=15 November 2001}}</ref>

In 2002, Banks proposed that the Eastern Transport Corridor might link into a harbour tunnel starting north of Parnell, and linking to Ngataringa Bay near Devonport, for an estimated cost of $1 billion.<ref name="WANTSLINK">{{cite news|title=Mayor wants $1b Auckland transport link|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=1341774|accessdate=18 June 2011|newspaper=[[The New Zealand Herald]]|date=11 April 2002|first1=Catherine|last1=Masters|first2=Bernard|last2=Orsman}}</ref>