The Transport Minister being stranded in Wellington didn’t stop the official start of Ashburton second bridge project on Friday.
By Jonathan Leask of Local Democracy Reporting
Transport Minister Chris Bishop and South Island Minister James Meager couldn’t make it to Ashburton for the event to mark the start of construction after their flight from Wellington was cancelled at the last minute.
The estimated total cost of the project is between $134 million and $144 million and it is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Early works for the bridge and new connecting road have been underway for several months and now that the design and build contract has been signed with Fletcher Construction, the main construction can officially begin.
In the minister’s absence, Meager’s advisor Amanda Hewson read out his speech.
"This is one of those projects people in the Ashburton admit Canterbury have talked about for years.
"Because everyone knows how important this crossing is to daily life into the widest South Island economy.
“This bridge is about giving the community confidence that Ashburton can keep growing, that freight and traffic can keep moving, and that there is resilience built into this critical part of the State Highway 1 network.
"It will greatly reduce local congestion and put an end to the rat race through Tinwald every morning and afternoon."
'A very, very long time coming'
Ashburton Mayor Liz McMillan said the start of the project "has been a very, very long time coming" and the community is looking forward to the end of next year when vehicles would be driving over the new river crossing.
"This is something we’ve needed for years now and the new bridge will help get local traffic off a congested State Highway 1, and add resilience for the Tinwald community."
The Ashburton District Council is funding the connecting road and is now budgeting for it to cost $19.7 million.
It has $16m tagged for the project in its Annual Plan 2026-27, having earlier this year signalled it would include $20m.
That suggests building the 360m long bridge and connecting it to Chalmers Ave and the new road will cost NZTA between $114m and $124m.
The council is also taking the opportunity to install a new watermain from Chalmers Ave across the new bridge to Grahams Rd for $3.9m.
"The new watermain will also improve the drinking water supply to Tinwald and pave the way for residential development," McMillan said.
"That extra work adds to our spend but the new watermain was already budgeted for in our Water Services Delivery Plan and it makes good sense to do it at the same time as the new road."
The new yet-to-be-named connecting road from Carters Tce to Grahams Rd will have give way intersections at Carters Tce, Wilkins Rd and Johnstone St, with a roundabout at Grahams Rd.
'All good things take time'
Former mayor Neil Brown had spearheaded the project during his two terms as mayor and was pleased to see the project finally breaking ground – a few months later then he would have hoped.
"But all good things take time, and this whole process has and they are finally starting."
He didn’t baulk at the idea of the new road being named after him.
"It will be interesting to see what the bridge is called and obviously, the council or the NZTA will decide that.
"I suppose they can’t call it the Ashburton Bridge because that name's already take, it could be number two."
He said there were two people involved in the bridge with the last name brown, referring to former Minister of Transport Simeon Brown.
Boosting his chances is the fact that there is no Brown’s Road in Mid Canterbury – yet.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air.
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