New grants bring trail goals closer

Clare Toia-Bailey.
Clare Toia-Bailey.
Government grants have spurred on projects on some Otago cycle trails, but the task of connecting them all together is proving a long process.

Yesterday the Government announced $528,000 towards projects on New Zealand’s Great Rides.

This included $91,000 for the Queenstown Trail and $45,000 for the Otago Central Rail Trail.

Queenstown Trails Trust chief executive Mark Williams said the grant would be allocated to improving the Twin Rivers Trail along the Shotover Delta which shares a road with heavy traffic from quarries and the Project Shotover sewerage project.

"By realigning the trail we can mitigate significant health and safety issues and provide significant improvements to the trail user experience. Particularly significant given that the Air New Zealand Queenstown Marathon uses this section of trail.

"We are delighted that we can push on with this project with joint funding from the Queenstown-Lakes District Council, and hope to start work in the spring."

Otago Central Rail Trail trust facilitator Clare Toia-Bailey said its grant would be used on the Hyde Station Project, and the trust would provide an equal amount of funding on top.

The money would fund realigning the building to the trail, the restoration of it and the wagons, as well as landscaping.

The trust purchased the station one year ago.

"Overall it’s a wonderful opportunity to help preserve the heritage of the building and provide locals and rail trailers an opportunity to experience and enjoy viewing the history of Hyde and the Rail Trail."

A $26.3million trail network project was announced in May 2016 which would combine four Otago rides and create new ones to make a 536km trail network linking Wanaka, Queenstown, Lawrence and Middlemarch.

Central Otago Queenstown Trails Steering Trust chairman Stephen Jeffery said the process was slow moving  due to the bureaucracy involved, but there was a lot of work being done behind the scenes.

The group would soon start negotiations with owners of land the network would pass over.

Part of the project involves restoring the old Alexandra bridge, which was opened in 1882 and closed in 1958.

The group could now begin stage one where it assessed whether the old piers would be capable of carrying a new bridge.

"We honestly don’t know. We’ve got to consider whether we can meet the specifications after the Christchurch earthquake."

The project will be created with $13million from Government, $11.2million from the Central Lakes Trust and $2million from the Otago Community Trust.

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