Queenstown Lakes District mayor Clive Geddes first raised his concerns about the bridge's ailing condition at a meeting of the Otago Regional Transport Committee in Dunedin last week.
Mr Geddes said the bridge may need to be replaced in the next few years, especially as planned development in the area would mean heavy trucks frequently passing over it.
"If that bridge is suddenly found not to be able to support the traffic it carries now, it creates enormous issues for the whole southern part of the South Island," he said last week.
Yesterday, the transport committee met again in Alexandra, where its Draft Otago Regional Land Transport Programme for 2009-12 was approved for public consultation.
An upgrade of the bridge, on State Highway 6 at Frankton, was listed within the programme as a large project for possible inclusion in the second of three three-year programmes to be approved by the committee.
Committee members unanimously agreed to label the bridge upgrade as a project of national significance, rather than leaving it within a list of regionally-important developments.
Upgrades of the Lindis Crossing Bridge near Tarras and Albert Town Bridge near Wanaka were also moved into a list of nationally-significant projects, to be completed within the committee's overall 10-year programme.
Committee members said all three bridges were in need of repair, and as they were on State Highways, their upgrades should be eligible for national funding.
