Council Prioritises Fix For ‘Uneven’ Rolleston Intersection

Wednesday, 7 May 2025, 7:36 pm
Article: Jonathan Leask - Local Democracy Reporter

The "uneven" surface of a new $5.6 million intersection in Rolleston will be fixed by the end of May, council says.

Levelling work needs to be completed on the major Canterbury intersection, between Levi Road and Masefield Drive.

The Selwyn District Council issued a statement on May 6 via social media that it was “aware of the uneven surface(s) on Levi Road” and that contractors will be working on levelling the surface as soon as they can.

Council infrastructure and property executive director Tim Mason said the road was built to design and there are no structural issues.

“The ride quality at the two entrances to the supermarket development along Levi Road that motorists are experiencing is a temporary issue.

“There are no safety concerns relating to this minor issue and currently a 30 km/h temporary speed limit is in place as a precautionary measure.”

The issue was identified during the April 4-6 “super weekend” when the contractors, Isaac Construction, worked a straight 84 hours to install the traffic lights and complete the final roading, piping, electrical work, he said.

“Since then, the council, design consultants, and the contractor have been working on the final stage of design for remediation for the ride quality.

“We expect to have this completed by the end of May.

“We are currently working with our contractor and design consultants to prioritise remediation,while also confirming responsibility for costs as part of that process.”

This issue was not caused by last week’s heavy rain, but the bad weather delayed the remediation work, he said.

“We can confirm that the drainage around the intersection is working effectively and was not impacted by the recent weather event."

The intersection is a main arterial route linking traffic in and out of Rolleston to the Christchurch Southern Motorway.

The finishing touches, such as road markings, had been scheduled to be completed by the end of April. However, this was only partially completed due to the bad weather conditions in the last two weeks, Mason said.

Isaac Construction have been approached for comment.

The intersection upgrade was originally included in the council’s 2021–31 long-term plan, ahead of Foodstuffs South Island announcing their development plans.

Foodstuffs is building the South Island’s largest Pak’nSave, covering 8100 square meters, on the corner of Levi Road and Lincoln Rolleston Road.

It is scheduled to open by the end of the year.

It’s understood that development contributions from the new supermarket will have offset some of the $5.6m cost, as well as a NZ Transport Agency subsidy.

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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