Repair or replacement of an aged bridge at Halls Ford should be prioritised by the Central Otago District Council, a Maniototo Community Board member says.

Work on bridges damaged by a flood 15 months ago, and others that are aging, would be a slower process than people may have thought, the board were told on Thursday.

Funding was only issued to the CODC every three years by Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency for such projects and considerable amounts of information had to be gathered for applications, council’s infrastructure services executive manager, Julie Muir said.

She said there was funds to fix one bridge – around $500,000 – as well as a maintenance budget for minor work, but other major works would have to go through an application process to NZTA.

Funds from that round would be available in mid-2024.

An “absolute shortage” of suitable engineers was continuing, she said.

These specialists were needed to undertake inspections and gather information on weight limits, repair options, seismic screening and the like.

Board member and CODC councillor Stu Duncan said Halls Ford – which connected a well-utilised public route before it was closed for safety reasons - should take priority.

He said options for others such as Scott’s Lane where the bridge was destroyed, could follow.

Halls Ford also links two halves of a sheep and beef farm belonging to the Paterson family.

Across the whole district, bridges of all sizes and ages will be coming under close scrutiny by engineers, to gather data for a draft strategy.

This would dictate maintenance and care of all the structures and was expected to be completed by council by the middle of the year.

The public were expected to get their say on the strategy in early 2023 – or possibly late 2022 - and final approval was due mid-2023.

Central Otago has 179 bridges, which council oversee and about a third of these are in the Maniototo.