Construction of the 52m walking and cycling bridge across State Highway6, which will span a cutting near the Shotover Bridge, is expected to start later this year.
Mr Bishop, who visited the site yesterday with Southland National MP Joseph Mooney, said New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) had confirmed the budget for the project after safety concerns were raised by residents about cyclists and pedestrians, especially school children, crossing the busy highway, which carries about 27,000 vehicles a day.
The bridge, which will link Jims Way, below Quail Rise, to Hardware Lane on the Frankton Flats, was a ‘‘practical and sensible solution’’ that would improve active travel connections between the residential areas on the Lake Hayes side of the Shotover River and schools, retail centres and workplaces on the Frankton Flats.
It would also support the Wakatipu’s thriving cycle tourism sector, in which spending reached $280m in the year to June last year, he said.
The construction contract has been awarded to the Whakatipu Transport Programme Alliance (Ka Huanui a Tahuna).
Mr Bishop said NZTA would work with the Queenstown Trails Trust, which would develop cycle and walking trails connecting to the bridge.
The bridge structure itself will be built in three sections in Christchurch before being transported to the site.
It will have an eight-metre clearance over the highway, which is the only route available between Otago and Southland for larger categories of over-dimension loads.
It has been gifted the name Puahuru by mana whenua, which is the traditional Kai Tahu name for the area at the confluence of the Shotover and Kawarau Rivers.
