The future of the state highways that run through central Dunedin may be in for a shake-up, but major developments expected in the next decade mean there are limited options for planners.
Dunedin City Council transport group manager Richard Saunders said his staff were already considering the future of the one-way north in Cumberland St as the $1.4billion Dunedin Hospital redevelopment gathers steam.
The hospital will be bounded on each side by state highways that run north and south, carrying trucking rigs as well as private vehicles.
But a plan that was being developed as recently as 2011 to build a bypass behind the Dunedin Railway Station is off the table for the moment, as the planned $20million bridge from the Chinese Garden to the waterfront and hoped-for development at the Steamer Basin make that option more difficult.
That plan would have run northbound traffic from the southern motorway along Strathallan St, on to Wharf St, behind the railway station, then via what the council described as a ``gyratory'', a raised roundabout across the railway line to Frederick St, then back on to the northern one-way system.
Mr Saunders said while the plan would be reviewed, ``that particular project hasn't been worked on or live for some time''.
He said the new hospital site meant there was ``some thinking and some discussions'' between the council, the NZ Transport Agency and other parties involved in the hospital rebuild, looking at the future of the state highway.
Those were in very early stages, as the site of the hospital had been announced only last month.
He said part of the process would be to look at the existing one-way set-up and the wider transport network to see if there were opportunities for improvements.
The council was waiting to work closely with the Southern Partnership Group, which was appointed to oversee the redevelopment of hospital services in Dunedin.
``Obviously there's a significant amount of work that will have to happen; there's a huge number of interested stakeholders that will be part of the discussion.''
The opportunity to combine the one-ways into a two-way system was still being considered, although the NZTA was the lead agency for state highways.
The idea of putting the bypass by the waterfront was complicated by the harbourside vision for architecturally designed buildings by the Steamer Basin.
``There's a number of huge projects on, which is exciting but challenging as well in terms of connecting all the planning.''
