Road funding falls short

New Zealand Transport Agency roading and transport allocations to the Queenstown Lakes District Council have fallen about $9 million short of the council's request for the next three years.

At the council's infrastructure committee meeting in Queenstown yesterday, network operations engineer Michael Wardill outlined the agency's funding confirmation.

The NZTA had announced its indicative approvals in May for the maintenance and operations and renewal work for three years. They fell about $9.2 million short of the QLDC's requests.

Last month, it had released allocations for road safety promotion, transport planning and research, which were $75,000 short of the amount sought.

Funding for four more categories will be released in August.

The majority of the money sought was for renewals, $37.1 million in total.

The NZTA approved $28.36 of this, leaving a shortfall of about $8.8 million.

Other shortfalls related to maintenance of the Crown Range Rd, as well as Wakatipu and Wanaka local roads.

Mr Wardill did not propose any long-term plan changes be made in relation to the Crown Range Rd.

His report also detailed performance of the region's roads during the major snowfall in June.

The snow had required a "24-hour presence" patrolling and gritting roads. The Crown Range Rd was closed only once, he said.

In May, 149 requests for service were made to the council, 42 of them ice and snow-related and 17 for abandoned vehicles.

There were several minor crashes on district roads during May and June and at least one serious crash on the state highway network.

 

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