Crown Range Rd will not close, Queenstown Lakes District Council Mayor Clive Geddes said yesterday.
Concerns about the road were raised at a Queenstown Lakes District Council utilities committee meeting in Queenstown on Tuesday, when the committee heard 72% of the environmental maintenance budget for the road for this financial year had already been spent.
The council requested $418,822 for this financial year from the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for maintenance on the "special purpose road".
The area covered extends from the Cardrona Village 20km towards Queenstown.
NZTA approved $358,293, a difference of $60,500.
Council acting transport manager Geoff Cobb told the Otago Daily Times yesterday maintenance covered fixing potholes and drainage, fixing signs, "everything that you need to do on the road".
Environmental maintenance covered vegetation clearance, snow clearing and gritting.
For the Crown Range, just $150,000 was allocated for environmental maintenance but $108,000 has already been spent, four months into the financial year.
Mr Cobb told the committee on Tuesday environmental maintenance was weather dependent and difficult to predict - for the council it depended particularly on the severity and length of winters.
"It also means that most of the expenditure is incurred at the end of each financial year, so expected expenditure is hard to predict, virtually until the year closes."
Councillors raised concerns NZTA could close the road if there was not enough money for environmental maintenance at the beginning of next winter - particularly because there was an alternative route - but Mr Geddes told the ODT yesterday this would not happen. Authorities had tried to close it in past winters and people had used bolt-cutters to reopen it.
"We will be making sure that the Crown Range stays a viable route between the two communities [Queenstown and Wanaka], skifields and commercial [businesses] in the Cardrona Valley."
