Traffic cone palisades: Safety concerns and frustration on Waihi SH2

Traffic cones at the Kelly Rd intersection south of Waihi. Photo / NZTA

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and its contractor HEB Construction have a big challenge between Waihī and Ōmokoroa - delivering a complex project while accommodating high traffic volumes and keeping road workers safe.

The $101 million State Highway 2 Waihī to Ōmokoroa safety improvements takes in 40km of busy highway and has a long way to go.

Police have issued seven infringement notices in one week to vehicles speeding through the temporary reduced speed zones at Waihī where the road workers are operating.

They say they receive multiple calls daily from the road workers complaining that they are being endangered by speeding motorists.

NZTA is working with police and investigating the use of mobile speed cameras.

"This is a busy stretch of road and traffic management with speed reduction, signs and cones put in place to keep road users and road workers safe," Jo Wilton of NZTA said.

Cones are used on the road in the "direction and protection" phase and the temporary speed limit dictates the width of lane the cones delineate.

But questions are being asked about the traffic cones defining the temporary lanes and separating traffic from construction activity.

Waihi worker Charlie Gawith says he has witnessed near-misses as trucks are forced to pass through narrow lines of cones, and he has had lengthy delays as contractors put out traffic cones and collect them again at different times each day.

The OceanaGold Waihi underground manager is not alone in witnesssing a near-miss of a truck sending cones flying on its approach to the roadworks.

"A large truck approached and the air from the truck threw the cone over my truck and to the other side of the road," Gawith says.

"I would say anybody travelling from Waihi to Tauranga is having issues with delays and near-misses."

Coastal News sales manager Nick Seal witnessed a similar incident, this time with a truck clipping the cones and sending them flying into the gutter.

Wilton said drivers should not have a problem if they followed the guidance of the advanced warning signs, drove to the conditions, slowed down, and followed the temporary speed limit.

She said where space allowed, the longer-term construction sites would use temporary steel barriers to separate traffic from construction activities between Mathers Rd and Athenree Gorge.

This would reduce the number of cones and allow a higher temporary speed limit of 70km/h instead of 50km/h.

"When the site is unattended the contractor is required to clear the cones so the normal traffic lanes and speeds can be used," she says of the frustration about delays.

Between 2009 and 2018, 25 people died and 66 were seriously injured on the 40km-long stretch from Waihī to Ōmokoroa.

Safety improvements have been split into 10 sections to try to limit roadworks along the highway.

A temporary barrier between Wharawhara and Sharp roads south of Katikati, installed earlier this year. Photo / NZTA

The plan is to have two main activity construction sites under way at a time, one north of Katikati and one south.

Trig Rd to Mathers Rd and to Athenree Gorge began mid-last year and will take between 12 and 18 months to complete.

The whole of the 40km of upgrades is not expected to be finished until 2023.

NZTA said most of the accidents were caused by people running off the road and hitting trees, poles or deep ditches, head-on collisions and crashes at intersections.

A wide centreline will help separate oncoming traffic, widening the road and shoulders will give drivers more room, and installing roadside safety barriers where there are power poles, trees and deep ditches and making intersections safer are among other measures.

The agency said up to 20 per cent of serious crashes can be reduced by widening the centre line, while a wide, sealed shoulder means there's room to recover if you make a mistake, cutting crashes by up to 35 per cent.

Flexible road safety barriers catch you before you hit something harder and wire cables flex to absorb the impact, slowing down your vehicle and keeping it upright.