The Arterial Road Project, colloquially dubbed "the road to nowhere", has already been controversial with Queenstown residents.
Last month, the ODT reported there would be delays with stage one of the project, due to insufficient funding.
Subsequently, the Queenstown Lakes District Council bolstered the funding to $128.02million.
Queenstown locals were outraged to see a digger yesterday morning ripping up freshly poured asphalt, at a site in Frankton Rd, near the Millennium Hotel.
One outraged resident, who declined to be named, was frustrated and raised the question "who is paying for the extra work? Is it ratepayers or not?"
The council apologised for the reversal in work, saying: "Challenges such as cooler temperatures have led to concerns that some of the asphalt poured so far has not achieved quality standards.
"Crews will need to remove the affected asphalt and redo the work to ensure the required quality standards are met."
As a result, night works will begin in Frankton Rd on Sunday, from 8pm to 6am.
"There is likely to be loud noise and vibration during these works, including the use of air-vac equipment, rollers, diggers, ground compaction and truck movements."
The council could not confirm yesterday the cost to re-lay the asphalt.
