Accidental Transmission Gully user 'scared and impressed' by experience
Sunday, 19 December 2021
With so many motorists on tenterhooks waiting to try the new Transmission Gully road, others have found themselves unwittingly getting a sneak preview.
A Wellington woman, who did not want to be named, said she accidentally drove the route late at night, along with several other vehicles, after mistakenly taking a wrong turn at Paekākāriki on the Kāpiti Coast.
Completion of the 27-kilometre newly designated State Highway 1 route from Linden to Paekākāriki has been delayed several times and Waka Kotahi confirmed it would not open this year.
The woman was travelling back from Palmerston North late at night on Thursday December 2, when a group of vehicles around her found themselves on the much anticipated stretch of road.
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“The road split into two and it being State Highway 1, I just went straight on and there was nothing to indicate that we should turn.
“The people in the car in front of me did the same thing, and there were about three cars behind me that followed.”
The woman soon realised that they were on the new Transmission Gully road and said she was both scared about what may be up ahead, but also impressed by the new highway.
Soon she became very worried about how she would get off the road.
“There was no traffic coming the other way… then I started panicking and I was thinking ‘Oh my God, am I going to come out the other end and plunge off an unfinished overbridge or something’.”
The driver said all the vehicles kept going all the way to the junction near Tawa and squeezed through some cones and got back on the main road.
“Honestly, it’s a beautiful road. I was very scared but also very impressed.
“If it wasn’t a nightmare, it would have been a dream to drive.”
The woman said she had since spoken to people involved with building the road, and was told that there had been other similar incidents and the police had been involved.
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A spokeswoman for the road builder CPB HEB JV said a similar incident had happened a few months prior and the organisation “undertook an immediate review” afterwards.
“As paving and line markings were completed, we have installed blockade signs and barriers to prevent motorists mistakenly driving onto Transmission Gully.”
She said the project takes public safety and site security very seriously.
“We understand the curiosity about Transmission Gully, but a reminder that there is strictly no public access onto the motorway.
“Until the road opens it is legally a construction site and therefore public access is prohibited.”
CCTV cameras installed along the motorway were now operational and would detect trespassers, she said.
“There will continue to be a heavy presence of security patrols day and night over the summer.”
* CORRECTION: A previous version of this story attributed quotes to a Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency spokesperson. The quotes were from a spokesperson for the road building company, CPB HEB JV. (Amended December 20, 2021. 10.33 am)