A drone shot of the new arterial route - cars can be seen at far right on the existing route in along Stanley Street. Photo: Supplied / Kā Huanui a Tāhuna Alliance
Queenstown's long-awaited $130 million new road into the growth-challenged tourist town centre is opening on Thursday.
But there is no funding to carry on with the original plan for two more stages to lessen regular jams in the main shopping street itself.
Several years of roadworks have frustrated residents, businesses and tourists as the alternative to the existing route in from Frankton has been built.
"It's been quite difficult to be honest," said Cr Gavin Bartlett, chair of the district council's infrastructure committee.
The new arterial, on the hillside a block up from the existing route, will open in stages through the day to make sure traffic is flowing, the council said.
It still has several more months of work to do on some side roads and stormwater, so traffic cones will remain a feature there.
Costs more than doubled from the original $50m the Crown put in for the project. Locals have worn the extra costs.
Despite the revamp not being a cure-all, Bartlett said residents would be relieved.
"We're looking forward to getting things a bit more complete and, you know, people can move around a bit more freely I guess than they've been able to for the last few years."
The new road delivers growing numbers of vehicles into an unrevamped town centre.
"It'll be a similar situation to what's currently existing now, and there are times when traffic is backed up through town relatively often, and that's where I guess the benefit of what was proposed in the other two stages would come into play," Bartlett said.
"The aim was to try to move the traffic out of the town centre."
The arterial has been talked about since the early 2000s. While stages two and three have no funding allocated for construction, there is some funding for them in the long-term plan from 2029.
Sewage disposal also an issue
Another growth choke point for the town is sewage disposal.
The regional council has upped the pressure there, taking the district council to the Environment Court over breaches around disposing treated wastewater near the Shotover and Kawarau rivers.
The regional council called this its "highest priority investigation".
Bartlett said he hoped to hold a workshop on sewage for councillors next week, which he expected would consider a recent call for a pause on development.
Deputy mayor Quentin Smith said a pause on housing and other developments should be considered until a "clear and workable" plan for the sewage was in place.
The town's water treatment plant has been hit by plant failures and is undergoing an upgrade.
But even so, this does not solve the disposal problem, after waste has been through the plant.
The district council has set aside $77m under the long-term plan for an overall solution.
But Smith said the problem was that would take years, and the compromises were happening now.
