NY-type makeover for Q'town bridge?

Queenstown Lakes District Council is primed to take ownership of the old Kawarau bridge when it is decommissioned as a state highway.

Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult has confirmed it is in talks with bridge owners, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which currently leases it to the NZ Transport Agency.

The council planned to develop it as a recreational asset for the community.

The single-lane bridge is being retired next year in favour of a $20 million two-lane replacement beside it.

Details still needed thrashed out, but Mr Boult said it made sense for the council to own it in the "longer term".

MBIE communications adviser Sean Martin confirmed it would retain management and responsibility for the bridge until a final agreement was reached. Mr Boult said there were concerns around the state of the bridge.

"We want some work done on the bridge and we want assurances about its condition before we accept it, because we don’t want to inherit a liability.

"But we do see it being developed as a recreational asset for the community — both as a walking and cycle way."

Wakatipu Heritage Trust trustee and former district councillor Gillian Macleod said plans should include new lighting, seating and history panels, and it should be like New York’s High Line, a public area created on a former New York Central Railroad.

Transport agency senior project manager Phil Dowsett said he had commissioned a conservation plan and had been been given the job of leaving the bridge "fit for purpose as a walking and cycling route".

Mr Dowsett said the bridge would be handed over to MBIE in June.