NZTA approves further $100m to repair Marlborough Sounds roads

New Zealand Transport Agency has signed off $100 million to repair Marlborough Sounds roads, but is yet to commit to further funding the council wants to improve the roads and build resilience.

In July 2021 a storm hit the region and before the roads could be repaired another, larger storm hit in August 2022.

While some progress has been made, particularly on Queen Charlotte Drive, many areas haven't been touched and around 1500 faults remain.

NZTA announced today it would give the council a further $100 million to repair the roads, with ratepayers footing a smaller portion of the bill. The agency had already dished out around $130 million for the repais.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown said he hoped it would give the community certainty, and he planned to visit soon.

"The great news here is the funding has been allocated, now it's about making sure the delivery happens so those roads are fixed," he said.

In December the transport agency's board agreed to the funding in principal, but the council had to go through the long term plan process to figure out how it would fund it's portion.

At that time NZTA also indicated it would fund around $24 million for work to improve resilience, in part to ensure this doesn't happen again.

Earlier this week Minister Brown's office said this had been approved too.

However, in a statement the agency said the December indication was "subject to further detailed design work" and it is "subject to further Board decisions and business case processes".

Marlborough Mayor Nadine Taylor said that funding is crucial.

"We bundled it together as repairs and improvements. Repairs just get us with that community connected again. It's the improvements that will leave them with that sense of certainty that they'll stay connected"

Taylor said now the repairs funding was confirmed things would move quickly. "We've already approved a project management office structure. We're already getting engineering designs underway and we're ready to push go on tenders".

It was also likely that part of Kenepuru Road would reopen later this month after only being accessible to residents for most of the last three years.

Mistletoe Bay Eco Village's Cathie Bell said it's come in the nick of time.

"Without the road this would be our last summer. It's been that close ... it's been a really, really hard experience for our board".

Moetapu Bay resident Peter Standish said there had been virtually no progress on his road.

"There are areas of that road which are one way. One side of the road we have a steep cliff and the other side of the road we have a very dangerous and precipitous drop".

He said the whole process has felt "protracted" and had caused a lot of stress.

"Every time we have a rain event, there's this rain anxiety".

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