Public win speed limit fight

Speed limits will stay the same on SH2 between Papamoa and Paengaroa.

Public opinion has persuaded Western Bay District Council to stick with the 100km/h speed limit on rural stretches of SH2 between Papamoa and Paengaroa.

The council yesterday voted unanimously to largely support the status quo on speed limits, with only minor changes due to take effect on July 1 - only a few months before the Tauranga Eastern Link (TEL) opened.

Councillors said they had heeded the overwhelming opposition expressed through more than 400 submissions on the proposal to drop the open speed limit to 80km/h, along with the 1064-signature petition organised by the Te Puke Economic Development Group.

The proposed 80km/h speed limit was favoured by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA). Bay of Plenty Highways manager, Niclas Johansson, said the recommendation to lower speeds was to save lives and prevent serious injury.

He said this section of SH2 was a high-risk road and dropping the speed to 80km/h would have reduced death and serious injury crashes by half.

Mr Johansson acknowledged that council took safety into account by changing the boundaries of the 70km/h sections of the road, and he welcomed the decision to review speed limits in two years once the TEL was open and safety works were completed prior to ownership of the road being transferred to the council.

Yesterday's council decision included authorising minor boundary changes to improve safety so that Te Puke Quarry Rd and No3 Rd were shifted to inside the town's 50km/h boundary, rather than being in the 70km/h slow-down and speed-up zone.

The 80km/h speed zone as traffic exited Te Puke heading towards Paengaroa was reduced to 70km/h and extended to beyond the Waiari Bridge.

Waitangi's existing 70km/h speed zone will be extended for safety reasons to 100m east of Strang Rd.

Yesterday's meeting recognised that the big unknown would be the NZTA's National Review of Speed Limits which was expected to be released late last year but had still not been sighted.