Waitaki Valley rural women intend to maintain pressure to ensure construction starts on new twin bridges across the Waitaki River at Kurow in less than 18 months.
Upper Waitaki Rural Women New Zealand has written to Transport Minister Steven Joyce about the state of the existing 113-year-old wooden bridges and would not give up the fight for replacements until a firm date had been set for construction.
"The funding [for the new bridges] is still not definite and we will be keeping a close watch on what happens.
It's about rural people mattering just as much as city people do," the branch's national councillor, Jocelyn McIlraith, said yesterday.
"There is still concern in the community that they may not go ahead."
Mrs McIlraith said some in the community believed replacement bridges were tied in with Meridian Energy's decision on whether or not to build the new north bank tunnel concept power scheme.
"They fear the bridges may be cancelled if the [Meridian] project does not go ahead," she said.
Upper Waitaki branch members wanted a firm assurance of replacement "rather than just a carrot being dangled in front of the community", she said.
The bridges linked the Kurow and Hakataramea areas and were an important transport and tourist route between Otago and Canterbury.
They were subject to safety checks by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) when the Waitaki River reached specific flood levels, and had been closed at night at 1500cumecs, on May 17.
The letter to Mr Joyce said there was fear in the community about the bridges' state.
"School buses travel across those bridges daily," she said, and the branch understood some bus and transport companies would not allow their vehicles to use them.
When the bridges were closed for flooding, it created problems for the ambulance if it was called to the Hakataramea area. The fire engine was not permitted to cross, Mrs McIlraith said.
"How can the NZTA say the bridges are structurally sound when an ambulance is required to be guided across and a fire engine is excluded from crossing?"
