Halswell Ward councillor Andrei Moore has welcomed the early completion of major roading improvements on State Highway 75 but said the project’s new bus lanes risk becoming wasted infrastructure unless more services use them.

The improvements on SH75/Halswell Road between Curletts Road and Dunbars Road were finished months ahead of their original October 2026 completion date.

Moore said it was good to see the work finished, though disruption for commuters would continue while nearby projects were completed.

“Certainly good to see it completed although the disruption for commuters still remains as the Halswell Road/Dunbars intersection gets upgraded and the Lincoln Road section between Curletts & Wrights is done which includes urgent water renewals,” he said.

His main concern was the lanes themselves.

“The question now is how we make use of these bus lanes,” he said. “There is only one single bus route that uses the entire corridor and most Halswell residents don’t live near it, which would seem a big waste of brand new high-cost infrastructure and missed opportunity.”

“We need a bus network that connects all of Halswell with the city via this corridor, particularly with another several thousand homes still on the way. Bus lanes only make sense if they’re used by regular busses, not sitting mostly empty,” he said.

Moore pointed to existing pressure on services.

“The demand is there, the 7 route is constantly full and even the streets in Halswell on the route are full on weekdays with people parking and riding because they don’t live nearby,” he said.

He highlighted Environment Canterbury’s network review.

“I would really encourage all Halswell residents to be having their say on Ecan’s network review public engagement this month,” he said.

He also called for T2 transit lanes to be considered on the route.

“We also need to have a serious look at where T2 lanes could work on this corridor. Unless we’re getting a bunch of new bus routes soon then we need to be realistic about how we get people moving between Halswell and the city,” he said.

Work began in 2024 and included priority bus lanes, shared paths on both sides, a two-way cycle path on the northern side, and new signalised intersections and pedestrian crossings.

The overall cost was expected to be between $60 million and $70 million, with final figures to be confirmed by NZTA once end-of-project reconciliation is complete.

The project involved about 275,000 worker hours, with almost 1000 people inducted onto the site.