Construction of a $25 million, 250m-long curved bridge immediately downstream of the existing bridge is due to start late this year.
After lobbying by a vocal group of residents, the Queenstown Lakes District Council last week asked the agency to review its analysis justifying that choice of site.
The group favours a site up to 1.5km further east, near Boyd Rd, which would provide a direct link to the soon-to-be-built eastern arterial road around the southern side of Queenstown Airport.
The group says the agency's choice of location was based on a 2003 study, and claims its preferred location would alleviate worsening congestion at the airport and Frankton roundabouts.
NZTA acting southern business unit manager for highway network operations, Ian Duncan, confirmed to the Otago Daily Times that work would continue on the current bridge replacement project while the review was under way.
Although the original report assessing the bridge location dated to 2003, ''reviews and updates'' had been carried out since, including modelling for the 2007 Wakatipu Transportation Study which also considered the
Boyd Rd option. The agency would use the Queenstown Lakes district strategic transportation model for a comparative analysis of the two locations.
That model had been updated recently to account for traffic growth, current population growth predictions and proposed future land development.
Mr Duncan said that until the review was completed, he could not comment on the implications of the agency changing its mind on the location, such as the cost, sources of funding and delay in completing a replacement bridge.
