Delays to culvert repair near Showgrounds site frustrate

Friday, 7 February 2025

The State Highway 1 culvert, opposite The Showgrounds, that was meant to have been replaced by March 2024.

Timaru’s mayor has aired his frustrations over delays to repair work on a culvert near the Showgrounds retail complex, saying the developer is “playing games”.

As part of work on the site, the developer was required to replace an existing culvert that runs under State Highway 1/Evans St by March 2024.

But the replacement was yet to be done, and that, along with traffic congestion at the intersection outside the complex, were issues raised at the first Timaru District Council meeting for the year on Tuesday afternoon.

Mayor Nigel Bowen told the meeting the developer of the shopping complex had “obligations to the community”.

“They just need to own up and do what they promised they’d do, which is to get that intersection fixed,” he said.

Bowen said the delay was, in his view, the responsibility of the developer rather than NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA).

Frustration over the lack of progress at the site is nothing new. In March 2023, Darryl Pyke, who had run his motor vehicle yard from the corner of Grants Rd and SH1 since 1990, said he had had enough.

An aerial view of the Bridge Rd, Jellicoe St and SH1 intersection, with The Showgrounds to the left, at the north end of Timaru.

Then in July of that year, councillors drilled NZTA director regional relationships James Caygill at a meeting. At the time, he said he would speak to the agency’s regional manager of operations.

In November, it was revealed the developer of The Showgrounds had run out of money and Equinox Group had taken over to continue progressing the development.

On Tuesday, councillor Stu Piddington asked for an update on the timing of work at the intersection and what was being done.

The council’s infrastructure group manager, Andrew Dixon, said that as the road was a state highway, all “decision-making is with NZTA”.

Councillors Michelle Pye and Stu Piddington at Tuesday’s Timaru District Council meeting.

“[The] council is, I guess, the facilitator in this matter and we’re trying to get the two parties together to reach a solution,” he said.

While it had been challenging, Dixon said he understood some progress had been made.

Group manager environmental services Paul Cooper said the process was at “a delicate point”.

“It’s really a conversation with the developer and NZTA,” he said.

Cooper said a variation was being sought to allow more time for modelling to inform a design, and he suggested any further detail he revealed would probably need to be discussed with the public excluded.

Piddington said people in Timaru were “really frustrated”.

Timaru District councillors Allan Booth and Sally Parker at Tuesday’s council meeting.

“It’s great to bounce it to NZTA and the developer, but we live in this town and we need to start driving a few things,” he said.

“So, them asking for an extension now to count traffic after it’s [the development] been open two years just is patently ridiculous.

“We need to get onto these guys and get a resolution.”

He suggested Rangitata MP James Meager should be involved as the situation was “just ridiculous”.

Timaru District Council chief executive Nigel Trainor, left, and mayor Nigel Bowen at Tuesday’s meeting where Bowen, and other councillors, aired their frustrations over delays to repair work at the Showgrounds intersection.

Council chief executive Nigel Trainor said he facilitated a meeting in November with NZTA representatives, the developer of The Showgrounds and the council at which there was “a lot of discussion on the size of the new culvert”.

“There was also a discussion on how much traffic was flowing through there, and the decision of that meeting was they did have to do more study to work out what was the best solution.”

Trainor said that while the council tried to facilitate the work, it was unable to do so as it did not have the budgets for SH1 – that spending sat with NZTA.

Roadworks at the intersection on March 9, 2023.

There had been two further meetings, he said.

Piddington said the culvert work had been talked about for “about three years” and asked if it was still up to the developer to pay for the work and when it was likely to happen.

Dixon said that was a negotiation between NZTA and the developer and the question was best put to the transport agency.

“We need to get NZTA in here to express our frustrations because a year ago they came, they made lots of promises, disappeared and none of it happened.”

Dixon said that suggestion would be taken as an action.

Councillor Allan Booth said the development should never have been allowed to open until the developer had fulfilled their obligations to the main road.

“That whole lot should have been done prior to the doors opening,” he said.

Council land transport manager Suzy Ratahi said the traffic monitoring and work on the culvert were “all interlinked”.

“We’d hate to push them to go and just replace that culvert sooner rather than later, without the developer agreement to pay for their extension, because the queuing space that’s likely required that will be picked up through the monitoring report perceivably would show we need more queuing space for the left-turning traffic coming in at that location.

“We would need the widening of the culvert to happen at the same time as construction. So the monitoring is required.”