If new ''high productivity'' trucks are to be able to use the roads between Dunedin and Queenstown, some bridges along the route will need to strengthened.
Bridges on State Highway 8 between Dunedin and Queenstown need to be strengthened to carry the heavy trucks, the New Zealand Transport Agency's's highway and network operations (HNO) says.
High productivity trucks exceed 44 tonnes and/or the maximum length allowed for standard vehicles and operate under a special permit.
They are expected to improve the efficiency of moving freight between the two centres and reduce the number of truck movements.
The bridges in Otago expected to need work to carry those trucks are the Alexandra and Beaumont crossings of the Clutha River.
However, the need and extent of strengthening work had to be verified through detailed design, a report to the Regional Land Transport Committee said.
The work was scheduled to be done as part of the first section of routes to be upgraded in the South Island to carry the bigger trucks and needed to be completed by June 30 next year.
So the HNO requested a late variation be made to the Otago Regional Land Transport Plan to allow for the project, after it was missed out of the region's land transport plan which was adopted in October 2012.
HNO requested $845,000 be included in the third year of the plan for the project.
To include a new activity, a variation to the plan was needed.
The request will be considered today at a Regional Land Transport Committee meeting in Gore.
The committee had to consider whether it required a variation, if there was a good reason for the variation and if it was significant enough to require public consultation.
The transport agency's advice was that a variation was needed and, as all transport activities needed to be in the land transport plan to quality for funding from the National Land Transport Fund, it needed to be included.
An assessment of the variation application showed it did not trigger the requirement to carry out consultation, a report to the committee said.
''It involves the addition of ''bracing'' elements to and between existing elements of the bridge superstructure.''
The HNO was also requesting a similar project be added to the Southland Regional Land Transport Programme to strengthen bridges along State Highway 1 from Bluff to Edendale to Clinton.
So far, the screening of bridges had only reached Edendale and the Otikerama rail overbridge had been identified as being likely to need strengthening.
HNO had requested $600,000 be put into the Southland plan for the strengthening.
If the committees accepted the variations, they would go to Otago Regional Council and Environment Southland for approval and then be forwarded to the New Zealand Transport Authority for consideration.
