The shortfall would mean some bridges would likely need to close in the short-to-medium term and for longer, and some roads would require long-term speed restrictions to manage deterioration as the work to maintain the roads and bridges to the standard they were now would be spread out longer, Tong said. “Waka Kotahi provides 52 per cent of our roading budget, and we were informed last week it would fund only 85 per cent of what we requested – $15 million less to work on our bridges and roading over the next three years. That means to do the same amount of work council would need to find another $7.5 million from rates or reserves.”