A NZ Transport Agency initiative designed to improve safety on State Highway 1 north of Cambridge gets underway next month.
The passing lane near St Peters School will be replaced with new road markings that that will help reduce crashes, increase safety for cyclists and make it easier to turn into school and nearby private driveways.
The highway from Forrest Road toward Hanlin Road (the entrance to St Peter’s School) will be resealed and the new markings will be painted between the hours of 8pm and 5am on February 3 and 4.
The Transport Agency’s Principal Safety Engineer Michelle Te Wharau says the new markings include wide shoulders for cyclists and a wide centre line, which will help separate vehicles and reduce the risk of cross-centreline crashes, increasing safety on the stretch of road.
“Motorists will notice the new wide centreline, which will incorporate two painted lines approximately one metre apart to provide greater separation between each lane of the road,” she says.
“Like a regular centre line, the markings will be painted as a series of dashed white lines on sections of the highway where overtaking is allowed and as solid yellow lines in no overtaking areas.”
Mrs Te Wharau says the extra space in the middle of the road gives motorists more time to react and recover if they make a mistake.
“The markings have been successfully trialled at 15 sites around New Zealand as part of Safer Journeys – the government’s road safety strategy which aims to reduce deaths and injuries by creating a road system that is more forgiving of human error so that mistakes don’t cost lives or limbs,” she says.
“The Transport Agency has studied the trial sites for three years and data indicated that installing a wide centreline reduces injury head-on crashes by 66% and all crashes by 21%.”
The painted median approaching the entrance to St Peters School will also be extended further north, giving motorists turning into the school more time to slow down as they approach the right-turn bay.
It will provide space in the centre of the road for vehicles waiting to turn right into some driveways.
The temporary 80km/h speed restriction outside St Peters School will remain in place and be extended 180m north, to the start of the new painted median.
Motorists should expect minor delays during the work as stop/go traffic management and speed restrictions will be in place the road is resealed and marked.
The Transport Agency thanks motorists for their patience and understanding.
For real time information on highway conditions and incidents visit www.nzta.govt.nz(external link) call 0800 4 HIGHWAYS or follow @nztawaibop on twitter.
For personalised information about driving conditions on their frequently used routes, motorists can check out and sign up to On The Move at www.onthemove.govt.nz(external link).
For more information please contact:
Natalie Dixon
Waikato / Bay of Plenty Media Manager
T: 07 928 7908
M: 021 928 413
E: natalie.dixon@nzta.govt.nz
