The NZ Transport Agency has announced plans to install traffic lights at a busy Hamilton intersection, where Gallagher Drive and Quentin Drive meet Kahikatea Drive (State Highway 1).
The Transport Agency’s Waikato highway manager Kaye Clark says the change will improve safety for vehicles coming and going from Gallagher Drive and Quentin Drive, and for pedestrians and cyclists crossing Kahikatea Drive.
“Kahikatea Drive is getting increasingly busy and it is hard for traffic at this intersection to turn out onto the state highway safely, especially at peak times,” Mrs Clark says.
“There are a lot of cars, trucks and people coming and going from those sideroads and they need to be able to safely get onto the state highway. These lights will make a real difference at this site.”
Design work is now under way and the traffic signals are expected to be in place by mid-2016.
The project will be co-funded by the Transport Agency, Gallagher Group, Bunnings Warehouse and Hamilton City Council.
Gallagher Group corporate services executive Margaret Comer welcomed the announcement.
“This is a sensible and logical development and can only improve the traffic and pedestrian flow along this extremely busy road. So we are delighted,” she says.
The traffic lights will also provide a link across the state highway for the city council’s shared walking and cycling path at the southern end of Gallagher Drive to its proposed Western Rail Trail which runs northwards, next to the nearby rail line.
Transport Agency contractors recently finished a 3km shared path for pedestrians and cyclists along Greenwood Street and Kahikatea Drive.
