The Second Ashburton Bridge project will provide access across the 650m wide Ashburton River riverbed, about 800m east (downstream) of the existing SH1 bridge. Photo: Supplied via LDR
It is expected to cost $20 million for under 2km of new road to connect to Ashburton's long-awaited second bridge.
That was the figure NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi had advised the Ashburton District Council to use in its 2026/27 budgeting, council chief executive Hamish Riach said.
Ashburton's council had previously budgeted $7.5m to contribute towards the second bridge project, but will now budget at least $25m.
NZTA is funding the new bridge, which connects Tinwald to Ashburton and aims to relieve congestion on State Highway 1 and improve the network resilience.
The council will pick up the tab for the road to connect the bridge to a new roundabout at Grahams Road.
NZTA has agreed to manage the tender process for the full work package.
At a budget workshop on Tuesday, Riach said NZTA had advised $20m "is a sensible provision for this budget year" for the road connection.
"We have to do that by debt."
He said the full design and cost of the project is yet to be revealed, but he expected it by mid-March.
"We still know from their advice that, in that year, we will need to provide $20m but the final number has not been confirmed.
"For the purposes of this budget, I think it's sensible to take the number they have suggested to us."
A visual of the new bridge, created by NZTA. Photo: Supplied via LDR
The draft annual plan workshop on Tuesday revealed the loan-funded project will cost ratepayers around $572,000 in debt servicing in 2026/27 and increase in subsequent years.
That figure also factors in the $4.9m loan the council has budgeted to spend on the project in the 2025/26 annual year.
It equates to just over 1 percent of the draft 10.2 percent rate increase figure, slightly lower than the long-term plan forecast of 11 percent.
The draft budgets show the council's debt starting at $149.1m and increasing to $177.9m by the end of the 2026/27 year, mainly down to the $20m for the bridge.
Deputy mayor Wilson said it was "a big lump of debt we are going to take on".
Councillor Carolyn Cameron said the council needed to "revalidate the costings" provided by NZTA.
"We don't want another Transmission Gully."
Riach said NZTA had been contracted to manage the design and tender process that would determine the cost, but the council would "reserve the right for the final approval of the design of the road".
Councillors had some of the progress design work to "know what the road is going to look like", they just hadn't seen the final design and cost, he said.
The bridge is the biggest project on the council's books, but the biggest impact on the draft 10.2 percent rate increase is the introducing of the food and organic waste kerbside collection.
The roll out of the new green waste bins ($1.6m) is proposed to impact the solid waste budget, which will increase by $2.46m - 4.5 percent of the rates.
The three waters services, which will go under the control of the standalone business unit on 1 July 2027, will cost $2.22m (3.9 percent).
Wilson made note of the fact that those major drivers of the overall rates increase were for targeted rate services.
He wanted a review of the green bin roll out budgets and also wanted more details around the parks and open spaces budget, suggesting its $6.751m budget is "a colossal amount of money".
What if the rates cap was in effect?
Under the government's proposed rates cap policy, the council would have to maintain a rates rise of between 2-4 percent, excluding water charges.
Councils can also seek exceptions for major infrastructure projects.
Based on those guidelines the council rate rise would be around 5.2 percent.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
