News that work on Wanaka's long-awaited "Caltex Corner" roundabout will begin today was greeted with a round of applause by the town's community board members yesterday.
"Two and a-half years I've been working towards saying that," Queenstown Lakes District Council project manager Rob Darby said, following his announcement construction of the Brownston-Ardmore Sts roundabout was starting.
Plans were released and approved by the community board in early 2010, as part of a larger $12 million transport improvement project for Wanaka. However, various concerns about access to commercial premises next to the intersection then emerged, which repeatedly delayed the design process.
Mr Darby told the board the project would initially involve an upgrade of the intersection's piping infrastructure during the next five to six weeks. The water pipe that runs through the intersection was already due for renewal and the "most optimistic" time frame for the sewer pipe's replacement was 10 years.
"It's totally justifiable that when you're going to put an asset over [the] top for the next 40 years you don't want to dig it up," Mr Darby said.
Work on the roundabout structure itself would be carried out at the same time as the pipe upgrade, but the road surface of the intersection and the way it operated at present would be maintained until after the busy Christmas/New Year holiday period.
"In February next year we'll construct something that starts to look like a roundabout."
