Upgrade plans for Queen Elizabeth Drive in Suva are being re-designed to ensure work is done within the space available.

The Fiji Roads Authority confirms it does not want to reclaim more of the foreshore.

Acting Chief Executive Kamal Prasad says the Authority has already spent around $3 million, but the final budget will be known after upgrade plans are re-drawn.

“The whole idea was not to acquire more land and to protect some of the old trees that are there. So we have redesigned the thing to fit what is there and the existing fixed structures that are there.”

Kamal says work is progressing well and is expected to be completed in the next eighteen months.

“Bridgework is on-going at the moment and it’s going to be another 4 months before the bridge is going to be completed.”

The FRA has $334.8 million for capital expenditure focusing on the replacement of critical bridges, roads and crossings.