Lower Shotover trees down from this week

After a tender process the Queenstown Lakes District Council has appointed a contractor to remove 72 ailing poplar trees on Lower Shotover Road, with work commencing tomorrow, QLDC network operations engineer Ian Marshall said.

The trees were found to be in ill health by an aborist after one of the trees fell during high winds last year, resulting in the tragic death of a local man.

The contractor, Treecare Southern Lakes Limited, expected the work to take 15 working days to complete.
“The initial work will be to trim and prune the hawthorn bushes between the poplars to allow access to the base of each poplar,” Mr Marshall said.

The poplars would be dropped onto the road then cleared off to be processed. This was expected to cause delays to traffic.

“While trees are being felled all traffic will be stopped. The trees will be dropped in small numbers so delays are kept to approximately a ten minute duration,” Mr Marshall said.

While felled trees were processed the road would operate as a single lane with stop/go signals.