It’s taken more than five years, but Sir Tim Wallis Drive in Three Parks is now complete and was officially opened today (Friday, June 12) by Sir Tim Wallis and five of his grandchildren who cut two ribbons at the Wānaka-Luggate (SH84) highway entrance.

Fittingly, the first person to drive around the roundabout and through the entrance to Three Parks was Three Park’s developer Allan Dippie, driving one of his vintage farm vehicles.

Allan, director of Willowridge Developments, said this main route through the Three Parks subdivision connecting SH84 to Ballantyne Road was a vital arterial road.

He said the cost to design and build the road exceeded “several million...but the result is great and Sir Tim Wallis Drive will provide much needed access from that side of town and indeed free up some of the existing routes into Wānaka.”

The roundabout will make access off the Wānaka-Luggate highway to the Wānaka Recreation Centre, the Te Kura O Take Kārara school, the New World supermarket and multiple other businesses easier for many. PHOTO: Willowridge Developments

“We started Sir Tim Wallis Drive quite a few years ago now from the Ballantyne Road end to [connect] to the new Wānaka Recreation Centre (WRC) so that project could proceed.,” Allan said

That initial stage of the 1.5km Drive was completed in July 2016 in time for the opening of the WRC, and then upgraded with parking bays, footpaths and cycle lanes before being extended to the Three Parks New World supermarket (which opened in December 2019). 

The SH84 entrance to Three Parks was more complex than the Ballantyne Road entrance, requiring the relocation and rebuilding of the Mt Iron car park; the design and construction of a two-lane roundabout; and pedestrian/cycle lanes and underpass.

Three Parks developer Allan Dippie was the first to circumnavigate the roundabout and drive into Three Parks. PHOTO: Wānaka App

“Construction was the easy part - until COVID-19 hit and that delayed things as it did with everything else,’ Allan said. “But now it’s all complete the whole thing has been fun and a breeze.” 

Work began on the entrance two years ago with the construction of a large, properly formed car park built by Willowridge free of charge for the Department of Conservation’s Mt Iron walking track users.

“The roundabout was a complex exercise design wise, and we had to deal with multiple organisations including the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA),” Allan said. “But it’s the prettiest roundabout I’ve ever seen.”

NZTA senior project manager Simon Underwood said although the roundabout will be operational it won’t be complete. 

“There’ll likely be some minor finishing works for the following week, which can be undertaken without affecting traffic use of the roundabout,” he said.

The roundabout will remain under temporary traffic management as surfacing work planned for April is being held over until the spring to ensure the remainder of the surfacing layers can be placed to specification, Simon said.  

He also said work to prepare the intersection for a pedestrian/cycle underpass had begun and would continue through July, August and September.

Allan said the full opening of the road will also allow multiple other projects at Three Parks to be rolled out and completed.

“The next one of those projects is the relocation of the BP service station (opening August 2020) and after that the relocation of Mitre 10, the new Mega store opening November 2020,” he said.