This Sunday night, 10 June, NZTA contractors will start building a crossing by the shops that pedestrians can use to get across the highway.
This is a proposal NZTA brought to the Residents Association over 18 months ago, and it’s finally being built!
As you can see in the picture, it is at the end of the car park, opposite Reds.
There is a 2.5m wide refuge in the middle of the road where pedestrians can stand, with rails on either side of the refuge, and 4m long islands running north and south.
The work will start 7pm Sunday night, and go until 5:30am. Night work will be spread over five nights, with some finishing work during the day, There will be stop/go traffic management in place during the work.
Once it’s built, vehicles will still be able to turn left out of the car park to go north, but won’t be able to turn right to go south from the toilet end of the car park. We’ll also have to get used to the refuge being in the middle of the road when turning right into Teihaha Road.
We’re pretty pleased, after many years of lobbying, to finally get some sort of safe crossing. It might not be perfect, but it’s better than the nothing we have at the moment!
It’s a start but what are they doing to slow the traffic speed down?
The two speed indicator devices installed last year were designed to reduce speeds, particularly around the Gray St intersection. We haven’t asked NZTA if they have any evidence they have made a difference. We had previously suggested painting red strips cross the road (like at Paekakariki), but were told they don’t reduce speeds. But, if anyone has any suggestions they know can work, let us know, and we’ll ask NZTA about them.
Speed cameras that issue fines are installed by the Police. NZTA were following that up with the Police, but I don’t know the outcome of that.