Dunedin City Council transport group manager Jeanine Benson said promotion of a bypass for heavy traffic "may or may not be an outcome" of the study.
The $200,000 study will include analysis of transport patterns in Mosgiel and traffic forecasts.
Those with a positive benefit-cost ratio could be in the frame in the 2031-34 national funding round, the council outlined in an agenda for a committee meeting last week.
A heavy-traffic bypass of Gordon Rd, State Highway 87, in Mosgiel has been mooted for more than 20 years.
In 2023, a public meeting on the subject attracted a capacity crowd of about 380 people.
Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board chairman Andrew Simms said at the time there was an intolerable danger to children from having trucks run along Gordon Rd, resulting in a series of near-misses.
Potential development of a freight depot near Mosgiel was another factor in the mix, he said.
Ms Benson told the council’s infrastructure services committee last week some work for the study had started regarding freight.
The study is expected to be completed in the 2025-26 financial year.
The NZTA is also looking into the flow of traffic between SH87 and SH1 in and around Mosgiel.
"We are working together to ensure that each study complements the other, so we end up with a network approach which is well integrated [and] compatible," a transport agency spokeswoman said.
