The 72 ailing poplar trees on Lower Shotover Rd will be removed from tomorrow, according to Queenstown Lakes District Council network operations engineer Ian Marshall yesterday.
Treecare Southern Lakes had been awarded the contract to remove the trees, a task which was expected to take 15 working days.
The trees were found to be in "ill health" by an arborist after one fell during high winds last September, killing farmer Russell Albert Liggett (57).
Mr Liggett's inquest will be held by coroner David Crerar on Wednesday next week.
Mr Marshall said the initial work would be to trim and prune the hawthorn bushes between the poplars to allow access to the base of each poplar.
The poplars would then be felled on to the road and cleared off to be processed.
That work was expected to temporarily close the road, causing traffic to be delayed.
"While trees are being felled, all traffic will be stopped," Mr Marshall said.
"The trees will be dropped in small numbers so delays are kept to approximately a 10- minute duration."
While felled trees were processed, the road would operate as a single lane with stop/go signalling.
