The Southland District Council received an extra $6.9million funding for road network improvements from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency in the agency’s final approvals announced last week.
While the council had applied in December last year to the agency for a total of $99.7million required over the first three years of a 10-year programme of road rehabilitations, bridge replacements and footpath renewals, it did not get the full amount.
It needed to revise its plan when it was told it would be given $14.3million less than it required.
However, the shortfall had been reduced to $7.4million after last week’s announcement.
"To have that reduced ... it takes a hell of a lot of pressure off the team working with the funds they had prior to the announcement," Southland Mayor Gary Tong said.
He said the challenge of fixing the country’s largest rural roading network could be made harder by possible material delays.
It was good to have the extra funding, but he was aware the work would be a big task.
However, it was something residents and ratepayers had identified as a need.
Regarding bridges, Mr Tong understood people’s passion for open bridges stemmed not just from getting goods to market, but also getting children to sports and school and for emergency services.
The council this year approved its average rates to increase by 10.15% as part of its long-term plan, and gave the need to improve its roads and more than 150 bridges as a major reason for the rise.
Council transport strategic manager Hartley Hare said the extra funding was a good result, although it was too soon to provide details of how it would be distributed across respective work areas or when the work could be carried out.
"We now have to go back and reprioritise our works programme, taking into account the extra funding secured."
It was unlikely the full value of the extra funding would be seen in the next six months, as the road construction season started in October and procurement was already under way based on projects identified when the long-term plan was adopted.
"We’ve missed the boat for this year for some of the work requiring more technical input."
Mr Hare said there was still a long way to go to get funding up to a level that would meet the renewal and maintenance needs of the district roading network, but it was a step in the right direction.
