The Dipton community will be split in two when access from State Highway 6 to Dipton-Castlerock Rd closes on Monday to replace Dipton’s Stag Rd bridge.
The closure has already forced a last-minute change to stage 5 of this weekend’s Tour of Southland to accommodate the closure, despite the Southland District Council approving the tour route before Christmas.
From next week the small bridge on the fringe of the township will be closed to all traffic until the end of April.
The Dipton Volunteer Fire Brigade is located within the township, while several volunteer firefighters live on the other side of the river.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) and the brigade have discussed the impacts of the temporary closure with the Southland District Council and said it had a solution.
Still, Oreti Community Board chairwoman Margie Ruddenklau said closing the link until the end of April would mean the tiny rural community had lost a critical connection to the town’s western settlement.
"They’re splitting the community in half."
Community members were also facing significant time and financial burdens using either of the two suggested detour routes.
Options included travelling an additional 67km through Lumsden or 48km via Centre Bush, South Hillend-Dipton Rd.
"We’ve got a school community on one side and a business community on the other. And we’ve got a rural community that farms on both sides of the river."
School pupils and the Dipton Playgroup would also be affected by the detour, as nine children lived on the western side of the river.
Mrs Ruddenklau said she expected other community services such as the squash and tennis club, golf course and swimming pool to be affected by the detour.
Many concerns had already been raised by the community regarding the lack of alternatives offered since the closure was announced and minimal council consultation with the community, she said.
Mrs Ruddenklau, who grew up in the Dipton district, said she knew the community well and in an attempt to "front-foot" the issue had called for community members to contact her with their concerns so they could be put to the council and a more practical solution could be worked towards.
She said she hoped to meet council members next week in the township to try to develop a more realistic and workable option for the township’s residents.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Southland District Mayor Rob Scott called the inconspicuous, unnamed 84-year-old bridge "the conundrum bridge".
"It’s a very small bridge, but very important for connecting the two halves of this community together."
However, technical aspects of the bridge had complicated its replacement.
He was surprised by how long council staff predicted the replacement would take to complete.
The closure "is far too long, but we can’t actually get around it".
The council was working with locals to establish alternative access rather than the proposed lengthy detour routes.
The new bridge would have two lanes as well as pedestrian access incorporated into the new design and was budgeted to cost $650,000.
However, establishing a new road access near the same point was likely to add a further $250,000 to the cost and the council was on a tight budget, Mr Scott said.
Any additional costs would affect future projects.
"If there’s a solution and it will work, we will do it.
"Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be that easy."
The present pedestrian access would remain in place while the new bridge was being constructed, Mr Scott said.
Council staff said the road would be closed to traffic at all times, but residents would have managed access to their properties.
Fenz group manager Hamish Angus said a bypass would be in place for emergency services via a local property, to allow the brigade to continue responding to all calls in its area while the bridge was closed.
Response times would be a few minutes longer than normal, but the delay was estimated to be less than five minutes.
"This is a sensible solution which meets the needs of our brigade and also provides for the essential work on the bridge," Mr Angus said.
The council is responsible for 840 bridges across the district.
The "conundrum bridge" is one of 23 bridges to be replaced by the council over the next 18 months.
In addition to the council’s bridge replacement programme, four additional bridges that have been closed for up to five years will also be removed, with no replacement plans in the future.
