Prime Minister Bill English, Transport Minister Simon Bridges and Clutha-Southland MP Todd Barclay were given a tour yesterday of the $22million bridge project, accompanied by NZ Transport Agency southern manager Ian Duncan.
Mr Barclay last year petitioned NZTA to expedite work on Queenstown’s congested roading network — that petition included a request to create four lanes on the highway between the BP and Queenstown Airport roundabouts.
In September, Mr Barclay said he had been told by NZTA regional managers that turning that section into four lanes would likely be delayed until 2018-19.
Yesterday, Mr Duncan said the initial programme business case was being "worked through" at present, looking at wider issues the Queenstown network faced. Creating four lanes from Grant Rd to Kawarau Falls was in the "medium term" plan.
"Medium term [is] probably the next two to five years, maybe stretching to 10, but, I would say within the next three to five-plus years," Mr Duncan said.
Meanwhile Mr English — in the resort to meet Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today — was impressed with the work to date on the new bridge.
The replacement bridge was part of the Government’s Accelerated Regional Roading Package announced in 2014 by former prime minister John Key.
The package provides Crown funding to accelerate the delivery of regionally significant roading projects.
Yesterday marked another milestone in the project with the beginning of the girder launch process.
Large steel girders, fabricated in Napier, are slowly being pushed by hydraulic jacks across the river, a process expected to take several months.
After a site tour, Mr English said a two-lane bridge for Queenstown "makes sense".
"It’s been a long wait ... there’s been an argument going on here [for a replacement bridge] for a long time."
Economically, given ever-increasing traffic numbers, the new bridge was becoming more and more worthwhile, he said.
"When you’ve got double-digit growth in traffic ... it just makes sense."
Mr Barclay said he spoke to Mr English and Mr Bridges about broader transport priorities for the Clutha-Southland electorate yesterday.
"I remain committed to ensuring our electorate is at the forefront of our leaders’ minds when they’re making decisions, particularly in regard to roading and infrastructure across the region."
