The long-awaited four-laning of a stretch of State Highway 6 near Queenstown is expected to begin next year.
Transport Minister Simon Bridges said in a statement the start date was ``pending the outcome of the investigation stage'' and the work had an estimated completion date of 2021.
Mr Bridges said the four-laning of SH6, between Grant Rd at the Five Mile shopping complex and the new two-lane Kawarau Falls Bridge, was being investigated, along with improved public transport facilities and services, walking and cycling connections.
While Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult said the news was a win for the district, he believed there might be a way to bring forward the construction timetable.
``I'm aware that if they're going to start in 2018 there's a lot of preparatory work that's got to go on, like acquiring land and a whole lot of planning and what have you, so as long as it starts in 2018 I think that's really good, really positive, and I thank the minister for that.
``I would be interested in exploring ways of finishing it before 2021.
``Three years seems a long timeframe to construct it and from the discussions I've had with engineers there may be ways to accelerate the build, so I look forward to discussion that with NZTA.''
Clutha-Southland MP Todd Barclay - who last year petitioned the NZ Transport Agency to bring forward the four-laning work and called for the ban on vehicles parking between the airport and the BP roundabout - agreed and said the 2021 timeframe was ``still of concern, but, it's certainly better than the 10-year horizon they were originally talking about''.
Mr Barclay said the NZTA would determine the estimated cost of the work once the investigations were complete. However, to date, it had ``never once'' indicated funding the work was a potential issue.
Mr Boult said the council believed the work was critical and he was ``underwhelmed'' after being elected last year to find it had been programmed for early in the next decade, which he described as unacceptable.
Since then the Queenstown Lakes District Council and Queenstown Airport had begun work on an airport park-and-ride facility at Frankton, which was a variation to the Eastern Access Rd project, formally known as Hawthorne Dr.
The $1.3 million facility would provide parking for airport users, with 150 parks to be used to offset the impact of removing car parking spaces from Glenda Dr.
It was also expected the facility, scheduled for completion next month, would result in the removal of car parking along Kawarau Rd, on State Highway 6. The NZTA was likely to give enforcement control of that to the council, which would require additional resourcing.
``The issue of the removal of cars from State Highway 6 is ... not quite as simple as it sounds, because they can't be removed until we've got somewhere else for them to go.
``You can't just say `Well, you're not going to park there'. Where do they park?'' Mr Boult said.
``So, with park-and-ride, they'll have somewhere to go, but the council is mindful that the last thing in the world we want to do is push all of those cars into the built-up areas, or residential areas, of Frankton.''
To that end, the council was working on a programme to enable Frankton residents to park and ``not have all their spots taken up by travellers''.
The wider Queenstown transport integrated programme business case, which also includes modifications to the existing BP roundabout, scheduled for completion this month, is due to be considered by the Wakatipu Transport Strategic Partners Governance Group this month.
