Plans for a cycling and walking trail from Mosgiel to Outram have been approved, enabling project leaders to get the wheels turning on securing funding and getting the path built.
Dunedin Tracks and Trails said it had received resource consent from the Dunedin City Council for a shared path, bringing an off-road route across the Taieri Plains a significant step closer.
This amounted to formal permission to build the Taieri Trail, the organisation said.
The consent runs until October 2031.
“It means that we can now go and start asking the funders for funding, and we can actually start turning dirt over,” Dunedin Tracks and Trails chairman Paul Coffey said.
“Dunedin has been the gap in Otago’s trail network for a long time and this consent is a big step towards closing it,” he said.
“Plenty of people already walk and ride the Taieri floodbanks and we can’t wait to turn them into a proper trail that connects Mosgiel and Outram, and from there the rest of Otago.”
Formal approval would still be needed from the Otago Regional Council.
The planned 13km Taieri Trail would start at Wingatui Rd in Mosgiel and follow the Silver Stream and Taieri River floodbanks.
It would cross farmland near Riverside Rd and run alongside State Highway 87 to Outram.
The track would be mostly gravel.
Mr Coffey said a design had been approved for clipping an attachment on to the SH87 bridge near Outram, but this would be expensive and some way off.
The organisation said the path was “not about to be built tomorrow”.
“Much of the route runs along floodbanks managed by the Otago Regional Council, which needs to give its own approval before any work starts there.
“Detailed design comes next and construction will happen in stages as funding allows.”
A feasibility study updated in 2024 estimated the build would cost $3.4 million.
The regional council supports shared paths in principle.
Regional councillors decided in 2024 the council should enable the development of shared-use pathways on suitable flood assets and assume responsibility for trail maintenance.
A staff report at the time said the regional council would have input into construction standards and its approach should prevent maintenance problems.
Council engineering manager Brett Paterson said on Tuesday the approval process would allow the regional council to fully assess the trail’s effect on the operation and integrity of flood protection works.
Dunedin Tracks and Trails said the trail would bring a lot of benefit to the communities it connected.
“By linking Mosgiel and Outram away from the road, the Taieri Trail gives people a safe, low-cost and low-emission way to get between the two towns, whether they are heading to school, work, the shops, a friend’s place or out for a weekend ride.”
It would link up with the Dunedin Tunnels Trail under development and the Outram Glen recreational area.
Dunedin Tracks and Trails noted continuing progress in development of the trails network in Otago.
Part of the Kawarau Gorge Trail, set to link Central Otago and Queenstown trails, opened on Sunday.
A 12km gap in the Roxburgh Gorge Trail is being filled in and is due to open next year.