“They need to focus on fixing the streets in the suburbs first.”
The city council has asked for public submissions on whether it should upgrade the streets around Te Kaha, the new multi-use arena, to better cope with large amounts of traffic and reduce the need for traffic management plans.
The construction and planned three waters work in the area provided an opportunity to upgrade the streets efficiently.
Said Johanson: “Personally, I don’t think it’s a good use of money or resources, and what I find extraordinary is they can be done in such a quick manner, contrasted to projects that we’ve had to battle for year after year ... where there’s money on budget, streets have been identified and yet we’re still struggling to get progress.”
More than 760 people have already provided feedback on the proposed plans.
"It is important we have time to thoroughly brief them on what staff are proposing and give them time to consider all the issues before we ask them to make a decision on the next steps for this project.
"I don’t want to rush that process so I have asked staff to pause the preliminary work they have been doing in the meantime.
"We are extending the period of consultation as there is value in getting the public’s views in order to inform the new Council when it does come time to make a decision," Baxendale says.
City council head of transport Lynette Ellis said Linwood and Woolston had been allocated $6.5 million through the Christchurch Regeneration Acceleration Facility from the Crown.
The city council had funded $1 million for the Improving Bromley Roads project. The projects are not expected to be delivered until at least 2023-2025.
“It is anticipated that there will be a significant amount of resurfacing works in the Bromley, Woolston and Linwood area over the next few years. However, the programme for this is yet to be finalised," Ellis said.
Burwood Ward city councillor Kelly Barber said a lot of people in the area are annoyed with the state of New Brighton Rd as "hardly anything has been done to it at all since the earthquakes”.
“I’d rather we spent the money in the suburbs,” he said.
“I think the roads around (the stadium) are pretty good at this stage and we could do an awful lot of good in a lot of places in the suburbs.”
Johanson said the initial upgrade plan was “leap-frogging” the east.
He encouraged people to make a submission on the plan to upgrade the streets surrounding Te Kaha.
