Queenstown’s council’s ‘request for quotation’ for an Arthur’s Point bridge feasibility report closes tomorrow — but it remains unclear how the proposed replacement bridges will be funded.
The feasibility report’s looking at the practicality of a business case, raised in 2020, which aims to address the lack of a suitable crossing for pedestrians and cyclists.
It’s proposing eventually converting the existing single-lane historic Edith Cavell Bridge for pedestrians and cyclists, with two new bridges mooted — one for active transport and a new two-lane road bridge.
The business case has been endorsed by the Way to Go group — a partnership between Queenstown’s council, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and Otago Regional Council — but a Queenstown council spokeswoman says Way to Go isn’t a decision-making body, and each agency has its own form of endorsement or adoption process.
Last February, Queenstown council’s infrastructure committee endorsed taking the walking/cycling bridge into delivery, and defer the road bridge until a later 10-year plan, or funding, is available.
Waka Kotahi’s been contacted several times by Mountain Scene asked to provide comment on if the agency will be a funding partner on the walking and cycling bridge.
To date, the agency has been been unable to provide a formal response.
