Mosgiel Community Board chairman Barry Barbour yesterday urged the Dunedin City Council to speed up improvements to Riccarton Rd.
Mr Barbour told yesterday's council meeting the upgrade should be a council priority because of the increasing amount of heavy traffic using it as a route across the Taieri Plain.
The council has scheduled the construction of a bridlepath - for Riccarton Rd's non-motorised traffic - in the period up to 2010-11, but "subject to financial assistance being confirmed".
The widening and upgrading of the road itself was "estimated to occur" in the 2010-20 period but was also "subject to funding assistance".
After yesterday's meeting, Mr Barbour reiterated the need for speed.
Councillors were unaware of the amount of traffic using the road, he said.
"It's been going on far too long and it's high time they got their bum into gear and got it done."
Mr Barbour said he used the road twice a day and considered the problem was with the narrowness of the road, not with the behaviour of drivers.
However, he had seen "a whole lot of foolish behaviour" from the people who lived next to the road, "like taking their kids out on it to teach them how to ride their bikes.
''It's not a good road for that".
There have been two fatalities on Riccarton Rd in the past 16 months.
Mr Barbour also questioned a council plan to replace the 100-year-old Wingatui Rd bridge, north of Mosgiel, with a single-lane concrete bridge, costing $850,000.
A replacement bridge capable of carrying trucks could do away with the need for a controversial $3.2 million bridge at Centre St-Carncross St, he said.
