Multi-million dollar plans to improve notorious Northland highway announced

Wednesday, 24 October 2018

The latest fatal crash on the stretch of State Highway 1 near Whangarei killed two people over Labour weekend.

New highways and extensive safety upgrades are the main focus of a multi-million dollar project to improve a notorious stretch of road in Northland.

The New Zealand Transport Agency revealed its plans to improve the highway between Whāngārei and Te Hana on Wednesday.

Bream Bay is along the way from Whāngārei to Te Hana.

The upgrades aimed to cut the high death rate by hundreds over the next 30 years, NZTA's Brett Gliddon said.

The road improvements would start at Whangarei, then work 67kms south to Te Hana.

* Two people are dead following a serious crash near Whāngārei**

'To begin with we will deliver short term safety improvements between Whāngārei and Port Marsden Highway [SH15A] to make it safer.'

That included improvements to roadside barriers, median barriers, centre line widening and road marking, Gliddon said.

While this was going on, a new, safer route between Whāngārei and SH15A would be devised to run alongside the current route.

That would future proof the volume of freight and traffic running between the city and port and create four lanes of capacity, he said.

Police stats showed that there had been 19 deaths, 51 serious injuries 186 other injuries on the stretch of road between Whāngārei and Ruakaka in the last 10 years.

Next, the stretch between Port Marsden Highway and Te Hana would be upgraded again with side barriers, median barriers, centre lane widening and intersection improvements.

Alternate routes or a bypass around the Brynderwyn Hills were also on the cards.

Gliddon said the plans would deliver short-term safety improvements and more reliable access on the existing state highway, while continuing to plan and protect land for a new route in the long term.

Under the previous government, the transport agency planned to expand part of the highway to four lanes but had to reassess when the Labour-led Government came into power.

'We appreciate people's patience as we've worked through this important re-evaluation process and recognise the frustration that uncertainty can bring.

'We have been working as quickly as we can to align with new Government priorities and provide the best outcomes and value for money for communities now and in the future,' Gliddon said.

In an October 4 update, the transport agency said work was underway to align the project with new priorities set out in the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport.

'The vision of the new Government is for a safer transport network free of death and injury, accessible and affordable transport, value for money and reduced emissions,' NZTA said.

'The proposed options are predicted to save 280 deaths and serious injuries over 30 years.'

At the time, the project was estimated to cost $900 million to $1.3 billion and take place over the better part of a decade.

The latest fatal crash along the stretch of road happened on Saturday.

Two cars crashed on State Highway 1, south of Whāngārei at Oakleigh, killing two people.

Three others had serious to moderate injures and the road was closed for more than four hours following the crash.

* The headline of this story previously stated the project would cost about $1 billion. This was based on NZTA figures that were outdated. No new estimate of how much the project would cost could be provided, other than it would be in the multi-millions.