Arterial road runoff shuts Queenstown's Ballarat Street

A flow of gravel, silt and water has shut a section of road in central Queenstown.

The New Zealand Transport Agency has notified motorists that access to Ballarat Street from State Highway 6A (Stanley Street) is blocked.

One side of the road is closed and coned off, and a digger is working to clear debris.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council has confirmed the flow stems from the construction site of stage one of the town's arterial road.

Council property and infrastructure boss Tony Avery says an earlier comment by the New Zealand Transport Agency referring to the incident as a landslide was incorrect.

"QLDC would like to clarify that there has not been a landslide in the Queenstown CBD this morning.

"Some gravel and silt from an existing worksite, for the arterial road project, has been washed down Ballarat Street by stormwater.

"This is currently being cleaned up by crews on site."

Ballarat Street was already closed uphill of Stanley Street before Henry Street for the ongoing works, and Mr Avery says the section impacted this morning was a short stretch that had remained open to allow access to two small car parking areas on council land.

He says the road will remain closed "for a short time" while clean up is underway.

"Other than that things are operating normally in town."

The transport agency says the state highway itself remains open.

Earlier this morning the agency reported on Facebook the incident was a "landslide", but this message has since been updated.

Rain is starting to ease in Queenstown after earlier MetService issued an orange rain warning for the Otago headwaters.

Main image (Facebook/New Zealand Transport Agency): Emergency work is underway at the intersection of State Highway 6A and Ballarat Street in Queenstown to clear debris after heavy rain, Monday, March 4, 2024.