A 1.7 kilometre cycleway in Wellington that cost about $1.8 million to build, has been estimated to cost $10 million to fix.
Island Bay cycleway, Wellington. Photo: Supplied / Google
Wellington city councillors today asked council officers how much it would cost to change the Island Bay cycleway to appease residents.
The plan, considered by many as a compromise between residents and council, was signed off in September 2017.
It was put on hold while the council applied for $24m of Government funding for a wider cycleway between Island Bay and the city, that would include the controversial stretch.
Councillor Nicola Young, who has consistently opposed the cycleway, asked officers at a meeting today how much it would cost to fix the 1.7km of cycleway that already existed, and was told it could be $4m more than the $6m put aside.
However, the council would not know for sure until the project had gone out to tender.
The estimated price tag was a very expensive fix for something that cost less that $2m to build, councillor Andy Foster said.
"It's a very expensive remediation to spend more than four times as much as what was spent in the first place. In my books, you're not building the same thing at all."
The fix included not just resealing the road, but a high quality transformation of the stretch of road, council officers said.