Latest news with #NationalLandTransportPlan
Scoop
2 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Fresh Push For Four-Lane Highway From Rolleston To Ashburton
A woman fed up with seeing near-misses is campaigning for State Highway 1 between Rolleston and Ashburton to be increased to four lanes. Rachel Gillard-Tew launched a petition this week calling on the government to reconsider four-laning the 63km stretch of road. "State Highway 1 is the lifeline connecting communities across New Zealand, and the section between Rolleston and Ashburton is crying out for attention. "Despite its importance, it remains a single-lane hazard." Her motivation stems from a personal connection to "a catastrophic accident on SH1" and, as a regular traveller along SH1, witnessing plenty of close calls. With Rolleston and surrounding towns continuing to develop, traffic would only increase, she said. "The potential for devastating accidents increases by the day. "It's time SH1 is also prioritised." With the range of vehicle sizes and speeds, it creates a stressful environment where people lose patience and take risks, she said. "There is no room for error at all with no protection from oncoming traffic. "The lack of safe intersections and an adequate median barrier makes this highway section particularly perilous. "The need for immediate action is clear and compelling." Creating four lanes between Rolleston and Ashburton would save lives and reduce the unnecessary risks faced by commuters and holiday travellers, she said. The major hurdle is, and has always been, the cost. Adding two lanes from Rolleston to Ashburton will require the extension or construction of new two-lane bridges at the Selwyn and Rakaia rivers. Four-lanes 'unaffordable' Former Selwyn District councillor Mark Alexander said that four-laning between Rolleston and Ashburton is "unaffordable for our region and country". He said a second bridge at Rakaia is needed for resilience and "more maintenance of the existing roadway is needed". "We need more schools and better healthcare, more than a motorway between Ashburton and Rolleston." Alexander sat on the Greater Christchurch Partnership and Regional Transport Committee during his time on the council, between 2010 and 2022, and said the "cost-benefit ratio was not favourable" for four lanes. He was referencing a business case looking at traffic solutions on SH1 between Christchurch and Dunedin, which was ready for the NZTA Board in 2017. Instead, the National-led government announced its roads of national significance policy that included four lanes from Christchurch to Ashburton. National lost the election later that year, and the roads of national significance were scrapped by the incoming Labour-led coalition Government. The business case, released under the Official Information Act, shows the preferred option was not four lanes. It included a second bridge in Ashburton and a series of "2+1" lanes, essentially alternating passing lanes between Christchurch and Ashburton. What's NZTA planning? NZTA hasn't ruled out four-laning in future, but it is not part of the National Land Transport Plan 2024-27. Regional manager for system design Rich Osborne said NZTA is investing in safety measures on SH1 between Lyttelton and Timaru ports. He said NZTA is aware of safety concerns about the busy State Highway 1 corridor, as raised in the petition. Safety improvement works are being planned and undertaken, he said. "Providing for wide centrelines has been a recent focus of safety improvements. "This creates more space between lanes and keeps vehicles further apart, which can reduce serious crashes resulting in death and serious injuries. "Recent work has included widening of the southbound shoulder of SH1 south of Rolleston, between Dunns Crossing Road and Burnham Road, to install a wide centreline." Further improvements over the next few years include building a second Ashburton bridge, the Rolleston access improvements project, and a new roundabout at the Burnham Road/Aylesbury Road intersection. A stretch south of Hinds and 2km at Rolleston have had centre line widening and more is being planned, but not until the next three-year land transport plan. "Pre-implementation work, including detailed design and some property acquisition work, is underway for wide centrelines and some widening works for sections of State Highway 1 from Burnham Road to Selwyn River, south of Selwyn River to north of Rakaia, and south of Rakaia to north of Ashburton. "As part of its long-term forward planning, NZTA is exploring future options for improving the SH1 corridor between Lyttelton and Timaru ports, and this includes looking at replacement of SH1 bridges, the role of rail and the potential introduction of four-laning." National's vision on hold National first proposed four-laning the highway ahead of the 2017 election, and the policy was resurrected at the 2020 election. The party had promised to investigate its viability in the lead-up to the 2023 election. When it released its National Land Transport Plan in 2024, National's Roads of National Significance were back, with 15 new four-lane roading projects across the country - including the Woodend Bypass, but not between Ashburton and Rolleston. Rangitata MP, and South Island Minister, James Meager said the idea needed to be reevaluated. "We need to do the work to see how it stacks up - the last time anyone looked at it seriously was in 2017, before Labour came into government. "My main focus is getting construction started on the second Ashburton bridge and making progress on our other major South Island roading projects."
Scoop
20-06-2025
- Automotive
- Scoop
Pekatahi Bridge Worse Than Third World
Eastern Bay transportation operators are 'ropable' about the surface of the Pekatahi Bridge. The 100-year-old, single-lane bridge is on the main State Highway 2 route between the Port of Tauranga and the East Coast and Gisborne. Warren Sherborne who operates WozHiab says the condition of the bridge has become 'critical' despite frequent closures for works. 'They keep on shutting this bridge down but make no improvement,' he said. Mr Sherborne frequently transports portable buildings to Ōpōtiki and the East Coast. 'It's like sending your little transportable home through an earthquake. It's just ridiculous. 'They're quite fragile,' he said of some of his loads. "The bridge is rattling the absolute living crap out of them. We're idling across the bridge in the lowest gear, taking up many phases [of the traffic lights] because we're trying to look after our loads." Having operated the business for five and a half years, he said he had never seen the bridge in a worse state than now. 'At the moment this is just insane. Their latest bridge shuts [during April] have been pointless. The boards are indented now." He expressed fears for the safety for loads. 'What if one of our loads was dislodged and came off after that bridge in transit and hurt someone?' He also feared for the effect heavy vehicles vibrating across bumps on the bridge would have on the foundations, likening it to a 40 tonne plate compactor going across the bridge. He said he was reporting the issue to the road transport forum Ia Ara Aotearoa – Transporting New Zealand, of which he is a member. Robert Monk, from Robert Monk Transport which he said was carting as many as 30 loads a day of export kiwifruit from the Eastern Bay to the Tauranga port, said the bridge deck had gone 'beyond a joke'. 'We're getting shook to pieces on that bridge even though the guys are going slow. He had just pulled a stainless steel screw out of one of his truck's tyres yesterday (Thursday) which he said was just the most recent of many. Recently, he had to pay $1200 for a call out when one of his trucks had a flat tyre from one of the screws. 'I'm only a little company but I pay in excess of $1.5 million a year in road users tax. It's unacceptable. 'I'm just ropable. It's costing us a lot of money, and a lot of other transport operators. 'It is a disgrace,' he said. 'The roads I travel on, when in the Philippines, are far superior to this, and the Philippines is a so called 3rd world country. What does that say about New Zealand? New Zealand Transport Agency has said Pekatahi Bridge is not on its End of Life Bridge Register for replacement because the timber and steel sub-structure was in good condition. Design work was underway for a full deck replacement. However construction was subject to funding and the existing 2024-27 National Land Transport Plan budget was currently oversubscribed. Bridge replacements were prioritised according to the age and condition of the bridge and suitability for current traffic volumes. Pekatahi Bridge did not rate as highly as similar bridges across New Zealand. NZTA planned to shut the bridge for further repairs during the upcoming school holidays, between June 30 and July 4. Dom Kalasih, chief executive of industry association Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand, told the Beacon the industry had real concerns about how works were being carried out on the bridge. Every repair done to date lasts only a matter of days before it starts to fail again and in only a matter of weeks it's as bad as it was before and we don't think this time will be any different. Doing this several times a year looks like false economy, not to mention the additional freight costs related to the detour are in the order of $100,000 every day. 'On average it serves over 10,000 vehicles every day, of which typically nearly 1000 each day are trucks moving goods and freight. The communities are heavily reliant on this connection and for NZTA to think that just because there's a 20 minute detour available this is no longer seen as a priority is incredibly difficult to fathom. 'NZTA's new approach is not what our country needs, particularly when productivity improvements are so important to our economy's recovery.' East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick agreed the situation was 'deeply frustrating for everyone'. 'I met with NZTA about this on Tuesday and learned there were three areas they were working on.' Short term these were regular maintenance each school holidays to maintain the surface. In the medium term, deck replacement. Longer term, assessing the future of the bridge alongside the necessity for a second Whakatane crossing via the 2027 Regional and National Land Transport Plans. "I impressed upon NZTA the need to evaluate whether spending $12-$14 million on resurfacing the bridge is really the most cost-effective option when it will still leave a one-lane bridge with complicated surface requirements as the main heavy traffic and regional traffic route through the district. 'Surely it is time to re-assess a number of components, heavy traffic requirements, the combined councils' spatial and growth planning, which will see this route used more and more, the need to plan and prepare for a new roading project for Whakatane before the traffic volumes reach a stand still, and the economic viability of the region and those of its neighbouring regions who use this route to transport export product to the Port of Tauranga and around the North Island. 'As an example you only need to travel the Waioeka Gorge a few times as I do, to realise the amount of heavy traffic travelling north from Gisborne for stock, Leaderbrand vegetables, citrus, products and services to understand the necessity of this piece of infrastructure.' "I am determined to keep pushing on these issues – I want people to keep sending me stories and photos. I forward them all to NZTA and it really is making a difference."
