Local MP Joseph Mooney’s urging NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) to look at more innovative and contestable funding for much-needed Queenstown roading projects. He cites as an example NZTA’s plan to build a small track and underpass below Nevis Bluff in conjunction with the new Gibbston to Bannockburn cycleway. “And then they said they were just going to build the track and not the underpass. “And I got some information from them a couple of months ago that they thought it would cost them close to $3 million to build an underpass, and that was sort of the rationale for why they couldn’t go ahead at this stage.” Mooney says he talked to a Southland company that builds state highway underpasses to NZTA specs, “and they gave me an indicative price of $500,000-$600,000” — subject to checking out the site. “So I’ve been constantly in contact with NZTA every week since then, for a while, and they’ve now sent me a letter saying they think, after reconsidering the project, it could be between $1m and $2m.” Mooney says this highlights for him “that we could look at some more innovation in terms of procurement and contestable funding to get our roading and roading-adjacent projects delivered more cost-effectively”. Meantime, he’s still advocating NZTA four-lane an 80-metre stretch of State Highway 6 as part of its $250m BP intersection project. In April, Mountain Scene revealed NZTA doesn’t currently have funding to double-lane either this stretch — between the Hansen Rd turnoff and the Five Mile roundabout — or the approach/exit at the Lower Shotover Bridge. “I’ve been advocating for [double-laning the first stretch] for quite some time, so the whole thing’s four lanes from roundabout to roundabout,” Mooney says. — PHILIP CHANDLER
