Motorists might be growing impatient with road works, but the good news is the wet weather hasn't dampened the progress on Canterbury's annual summer works.

NZTA’s state highway and district council local road programmes remain on schedule, as bad weather is always factored into the planning.

An NZTA spokesman said there had been “no impact of any substance” to its major project schedules because of the wet weather in the Selwyn and Ashburton districts.

The Rolleston access improvements project had an allowance built into the programme for wet weather, he said.

“Some of that allowance has been used up, but this has not delayed the project overall.”

The weather has impacted the general roading maintenance roading programmes in Mid Canterbury.

This causes a “stacking up" of lost shifts and a squeezing of the season schedule.

"That can result in the overlapping of roading works, and greater cumulative delays for road users, which we try to avoid”.

Road reconstruction on SH1 south of Ashburton, near Longbeach Road, is underway until March 18, and asphalt work is planned on State Highway 1 in Tinwald, from Jane Street to Hassal Street, and Carters Terrace to Manchester Street from this week.

Ashburton District Council’s chief executive Hamish Riach said the wet weather had made the reseals programme challenging in January with fewer days suitable for sealing, but the overall programme is not affected.

The council plans to complete 9.5km ($3.1m) of rehabilitation and 84km ($4m) of reseals he said.

The council received an additional $2.5m boost which Riach said is “essentially getting subsidy for our previous unsubsidised budget”.

“It will mean an increase to our subsidised spend and a decrease to our unsubsidised spend.

The extra funding will go to reseals ($1.1m), unsealed road metalling ($500,000), unsealed pavement maintenance ($150,000) and sealed pavement rehabilitation ($750,000).

Another major project coming up is the restoration of the historic rail footbridge, that runs between West St/SH1 and East St over the railway line.

Tenders are set to close on February 12, with the project previously estimated to cost $705,000.

Selwyn District Council’s infrastructure and property executive director Tim Mason said the overall programme is on track because it “includes some flexibility to allow for delays and because our contractors have been working hard and have already delivered a lot of our planned programme”.

In 2025/26, Selwyn is undertaking 6km of rehabilitation ($2.23m), 83km of reseals ($6.56m) and has around $1.4m of new shingle “on an as needed basis” for its unsealed roads.

Mason said the council had also received an extra $3 million from NZTA-approved, “which will allow us to increase the amount of road renewal work we are doing, particularly around the Rolleston Industrial Zone”.

By Jonathan Leask