In the past, it has had to seek a resource consent every time it did any work near, or in, a waterway, an expensive process in both time and money, city council projects engineer Evan Matheson said.
It also meant work which would cost less than the consent process itself would was often deferred.
So the council had applied to the regional council for global consents to undertake culvert, bridge and ford maintenance and bed reinstatement and protection activities within waterways.
It would mean instead of going through a resource consent process each time it wanted to do routine maintenance, it would only need to notify the council and provide plans of the planned works before they were started.
"There will be a time and money saving."
He estimated the saving to the roading department alone would be $50,000 to $100,000.
The work would still have to meet conditions and follow guidelines protecting the waterways, such as controlling sediment and protecting fish life, he said.
However, any major projects, such as replacing a bridge, would require a separate consent.
Regional council resource management director Dr Selva Selvarajah said global consents had advantages for both the regional council and local authorities.
However, as the council now required to know the location of structures where work could be done and the type of work which might need to be done, it made it a difficult process for some organisations, he said.
This allowed the consents to be publicly notified, allowing affected parties the opportunity to make submissions, he said.
The Central Otago District Council had its global consents granted in 2003 and the Clutha District Council in 2006.
The Waitaki District and the Queenstown-Lakes District Councils' applications were being considered by the regional council.
Transit had also applied for global consents in 2001 and they were granted in 2004.
The application was open for public submissions until March 13.
