Road widening to cater for Richmond growth

A road on the outskirts of Richmond will be widened to allow for growth in the area and more traffic projected when a New World opens.

Work to widen Bateup Rd at Richmond and provide a shared walkway-cycleway is expected to begin in mid April.

The project is designed to help cater for increased traffic from growth in the area including the Hart Rise/Arizona and Paton Rise subdivisions as well as the planned development of a New World supermarket on a site near Three Brothers Corner.

Tasman District Council project manager Graham Rimmer said the work was extensive and would require Bateup Rd to be reduced to one lane for its entire length during construction. Awarded to Higgins Contracting, the project was due to be completed by Christmas.

‘‘We appreciate this is going to be a lengthy period of construction for residents and others who use Bateup Rd and we thank you in advance for your patience,’’ Rimmer said.

‘‘Richmond is growing extremely quickly and we do need to carry out some pretty major infrastructure upgrades to cater for that. There aren’t any quick, easy fixes but the end result will serve our growing population for many years to come, so I hope everyone can bear with us in the meantime.’’

As part of the project, Bateup Rd is to be widened from Three Brothers Corner to Wensley Rd along with the creation of a shared walkway-cycleway.

A roadside drain is to be replaced with piped stormwater and some stormwater storage chambers.

Information on the council website says a new 350mm water main is to be installed that will be a future connection from the Richmond Water Treatment Plant to a planned new reservoir at Richmond South.

The water main will feed into the Hart Rise/Arizona and Paton Rise subdivisions for which integration work has already started.

Foodstuffs South Island Ltd is the co-operative company behind the planned development of the New World supermarket, which has been granted resource consent.

Its general manager of property and retail development, Roger Davidson, said Foodstuffs was waiting for data from the latest Census to compare the population growth with earlier projections.

That would give the company accurate data to determine the timing of the planned development.

Concept drawings had been completed so the development stages could happen quickly, he said.