Liam Christopher Stevenson (16) died when his car and a container truck collided. The truck driver received minor injuries.
Chalmers Community Board member Trevor Johnson and Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie yesterday both criticised police for the closure, from 3.55pm-9.30pm.
Mr Johnson said the five and a-half hours it took to reopen the highway was "absolutely ridiculous".
"It's terrible someone's been killed, but there's no reason for it to be closed that long. People were trapped everywhere. The only reason it took so long is because they had to bring the mapper [crash analysis forensic mapping officer] down from Alexandra," Mr Johnson, a former police sergeant, said.
"It's absolutely ridiculous. Using a local mapper would have saved at least three hours. I was gobsmacked when I heard about that decision. But the local district commander doesn't want to spend the money on on-call allowances.
"Yet the AOS [armed offenders squad] and CVIU [commercial vehicle inspection unit] guys are all on on-call allowances," he said.
Acting southern district road policing manager Senior Sergeant Steve Larking stood by the decision to delay reopening the road by up to three hours to wait for a serious crash investigation officer.
"There wasn't one available in Dunedin, so the decision was made to bring one down from [Alexandra]," he said.
"We have only got three people trained up as serious crash scene investigators for the whole area and it's a very big area. They work on a roster system and whoever is on the roster is the one who attends the accident.
"We don't pay on-call allowances and you can only work with what you have available.
"These guys have to have a day off as well," he said.
The three serious crash investigation officers in the Otago-Southland police crash analysis forensic mapping section are based in Dunedin, Alexandra and Invercargill.
Snr Sgt Larking agreed AOS and CVIU unit members were paid an on-call allowance, but could not explain why the crash analysis forensic mapping section was not.
"It's not the appropriate time to comment," he said.
Mr Johnson said Thursday's road closure was "not the first time this has happened and, to me, it's totally unreasonable".
"We're talking about a state highway here. I just think it's very poor, from a community's point of view," Mr Johnson said.
"This is at least the third or fourth time this has happened in the last 18 months. To have seven or eight police officers standing around in the cold for three hours waiting for someone ... it would be very interesting to know what that costs in dollar terms."
Snr Sgt Larking said he was "unaware" of other delays in clearing crash scenes caused by waiting for an out-of-town investigator.
Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie said last night the delay in reopening SH88 was "a complete nonsense".
"Obviously, a tragedy has unfolded, but when you look at the time and cost involved it's a real shame it couldn't have been reopened a lot sooner," he said.
"That's a lengthy closure on that road and to think it could have been shortened by three hours over a couple of hundred bucks overtime is a complete nonsense," he said.
"The longer it takes to get a road reopened after something like this, the more it costs. If you could measure it in economic terms - and I'm sure an economist could - it would be quite significant, I'd say. There is a cost of time and there is a cost of money," Mr Christie said.
"All that decision not to pay overtime has actually done is shifted the cost on to businesses and residents. It's a shame, really. It's just about bureaucracy not wanting to pay overtime rates.
"Any mitigation of the potential for this to happen again would be welcomed by all concerned, I'd have thought."
Hundreds of motorists were affected by the closure. A detour was available via Upper Junction and North roads. The diverted traffic created a bottleneck at the Gardens corner.
