David Hay, of Queenstown, writes that a Kawarau bridge in the wrong place is worse than no new bridge at all.
The NZ Transport Agency is to be pitied.
As a government body it has been mandated to pursue a bridge solution that has been politically determined, rather than by ''the numbers''.
The new Kawarau bridge is one of five ''critically important regional projects'' in the Government's accelerated roading package for which it approved $80million on June 20, 2014.
Being important politically, they are to be Crown-funded rather than NZTA-funded.
Unfortunately, this accelerated process followed by the Government and the NZTA has led to a perverse outcome; the alignment for the bridge defies common sense.
Recently, a community group, greatly concerned about both the short and long-term economic and community effects of the Kawarau Falls bridge location, has examined the benefits and costs of an alternative positioning downstream, creating a ring road around the rapidly developing town centre at Remarkables Park and Glenda Dr and the eastern end of the airport (the Eastern Arterial Route).
This study has demonstrated the obvious - unequivocally superior economic and traffic flow benefits.
The NZTA has been made aware of this.
However, in discussions last week between the NZTA and Queenstown Lakes District Council it has become clear that while the NZTA now understands the merits of an alternative downstream bridge location, it is under a political mandate to proceed with the ''shovel-ready'' project at Kawarau Falls beside the existing one-lane dam bridge.
Critical in gaining QLDC acquiescence were the NZTA's assurances that all consents had been obtained; it would take ''six years'' to obtain the consents and other Resource Management Act requirements for another alignment; and if the Kawarau Falls bridge did not go ahead, the allocated funding would be lost as would the prospects of any new bridge for the foreseeable future.
Incongruously, the process has delivered neither what our community wants nor an optimal socioeconomic solution involving a major expenditure of public funds, currently estimated at $25million (not allowing for cost overruns).
As Todd Barclay, the regional MP, has confirmed, the NZTA has said the district will most likely receive a second bridge within 10 years ''near the location we propose''.
Given the length of time it takes to get from concept to completion, this seems unlikely unless it is started now.
And if work has to start on this ''second bridge'' (which is essentially the bridge the community group has been advocating) now, then why not do so?
The NZTA has said it will take only six years to build and if resources are not wasted on a white elephant over the falls, it could possibly be built in just four years.
To make the proposed Kawarau Falls bridge work - and for those with local knowledge - the NZTA proposes to construct a roundabout at the bottom of Humphrey St, take the eastbound traffic up Humphrey St, across Douglas St and into Lucas Pl (purchasing properties between Douglas St and Lucas Pl), past the New World on Hawthorne Dr, past the new High School and around the end of the airport on the Eastern Arterial Route.
Traffic to and from the south and traffic to and from the direction of Cromwell would have to intermingle with local traffic at Lucas Pl and on Hawthorne Dr.
The result - chaos!
And for the politicians - the Kawarau Falls is the wrong location for the new bridge.
A bridge in the wrong place is worse than no new bridge at all.
