But with the Waitaki District Council needing to find at least another $2m to remove the old bridge and the entire project subject to further review by the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, the project still faces uncertainty.
Under the 2024-25 allocations for the National Land Transport Fund (NLTP) announced last week, Waitaki has had its $9.37m application for the new bridge confirmed.
Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher said while they had been successful in the application, the next steps to finally realise the project were still being worked through.
"At the moment there is more detailed planning going on," Mr Kircher said.
The bridge money, classified as for local road improvements under the fund, is the sole new project for the Waitaki district in 2024-25.
Replacement of the single-lane Kakanui Bridge has been in the offing for a while.
A new bridge on a slightly different alignment and 2m higher will provide for climate adaptation concerns.
The existing bridge, which is weight restricted and narrow, has limited viability for motorists, but is the critical connection for the coastal rural zone south of Oamaru.
Waitaki major transport projects manager Mike Harrison said the $9.3m allocated in the NLTP for the bridge "was indicated".
It would still be subject to further analysis by the NZ Transport Agency.
The next council meeting on September 24 would again consider the bridge replacement programme.
"However, currently available funds do not meet the cost of the programme — which will be part of the consideration," Mr Harrison said.
"$9.3 million was indicated in the recent NLTP funding, but it is still subject to NZTA accepting a present value end-of-life analysis that council submitted this [last] week."
In April the council heard the existing bridge had "certain restrictions", namely for classified heavy commercial vehicles.
At that stage the budgeted $9.37m was for a single-lane replacement only.
"The replacement is categorised as an asset renewal, aiming for a like-for-like replacement upgraded to meet current design standards," the council was told at the time.
The life expectancy was expected to be up to 100 years, and to accommodate 1-in-100-year flood levels.
Mr Harrison said the council was unsuccessful in its application for another $2m under the NZTA’s Low Cost Low Risk (LCLR) fund.
That would have covered removing the old bridge, abutment and the current road approach, he said.
The budgeted bridge design, previously presented to the council, was for a 3.5m-wide traffic lane, with a 1.5m-wide footpath.
The council in April heard that a double-lane option would cost about 33% extra, or between $3.1m and $4.2m, excluding land costs.
Much of the focus in the 2024-27 NLTP is for the government’s roads of national significance plan.
This has mostly allocated $32.9 billion for motorways for major urban centre connections.
Other allocations for Waitaki under the 2024-27 NLTP includes $900,000 for walking and cycling and interim funding in 2024-25 of just over $2m for local road pothole prevention.
For 2024-27 the district will receive $31.8m for its local road pothole prevention (maintenance, operations and renewal), and $12.3m for local road operations.
