Road safety protesters to block SH2 north of Tauranga today

Andrew Hollis, from the Fix the Bloody Road group. The community collective will block SH2 at Wairoa Bridge this afternoon to protest Government inaction at making the highway safer. Photo/file

Protesters will block a notorious stretch of State Highway 2 between Tauranga and Katikati this afternoon.

Western Bay of Plenty residents fed up with the high toll of fatal and serious injury crashes on the highway are calling for authorities to do more to make the high-risk road safer.

The protest comes after a black week on Western Bay highways. Three fatal crashes claimed four lives in four days. The crashes were on SH2, near Pahioa Rd, and again on SH2 near Pukehina and another on SH29 in the Kaimai Range.

At 3pm today protesters will block the usually busy Wairoa Bridge. They encouraged anyone who needs to travel, to find an alternative route.

According to Fix the Bloody Road campaign spokesman Matthew Farrell, it was the unknowns and the months of continuing delays for answers that had the community boiling over into protest action.

"Of course anyone in their right mind welcomed the safety improvements, but we still have three out of four projects on ice, and every six months the decision moves out another six months."

Farrell said the funding and work the agency had committed to was "far short" of what was needed.

It was "not realistic" for the Government to try and get rural people out of their cars, he said: highways were a necessity.

"The urgency is because we are already well behind the eight-ball, and hundreds of new homes are being built. They need to pull finger and commit some funding."

The NZ Transport Agency has said three projects supported by the previous Government were being entirely re-evaluated, including the Katikati bypass and Tauranga Northern Link.

This could take up to four months.

SH2 protest

When: this Sunday, 3pm
Where: Wairoa Bridge
Who: Fix the Bloody Road campaign supporters
Why: Pressure Government to fast-track SH2 re-evaluations.