Chance to fix ‘Bartletts ascent’

John Wells

Opinion

Re: NZTA seeking community input on highways, May 19 story.

On November 25 last year in your Weekender an opinion piece of mine was published titled “Regional roading opportunity”. That opportunity referred to the approximately 5.1km length of State Highway 2 south, from just south of the Maraetaha No 4 bridge (RP461/7.2) to just short of the long uphill passing bay below the old forestry headquarters (RP461/12.3), known in roading circles as the “Bartletts ascent”. This is the section of SH2 that claimed the fatal Tongan bus crash at Christmas 2016, the kapa haka bus crash a year before that and a number of heavy vehicle and trailer crashes before and since. This is the windy piece that every parent knows their kids will throw up on at the very start of their road trip south.

Much has been discussed and published about the sorry state of SH35 up the Coast and that cannot be denied, but the plight of the main entrance to this district from the south hasn’t even been broached. This is our opportunity.

Way back (last century) in the 1950s through to the ’70s, the governments of the day embarked on a reconstruction programme on the Morere to Gisborne highway, beginning with the Morere Hill and including the Tarewa deviation across the tops of the Whareratas, the sweeping dip the Wairoa side of the Whareratas lookout and that long uphill passing bay mentioned above. The Bartletts ascent and the Kopua Hill were also surveyed and designed but missed out due to lack of funding. In the 1980s a much watered down improvement of the Bartletts ascent was implemented and that is the road we have today. The Kopua Hill has recently been upgraded, with passing bays added.

With a “regions focused” Government behind it, this call by NZTA seeking community input is our opportunity, but who is going to lead it? The drawings and details of the original designs and options for the full upgrade will undoubtedly still be in the Ministry of Works archives in Wellington (or maybe in Napier). Tairawhiti Roads should be able to access these to give the project a big kick-off. But who will get behind it with political push to bring it to fruition? The Chamber of Commerce? Activate Tairawhiti? Gisborne District Council?

With the new Motu Bridge now in use on our northern access route, it is time to look south and upgrade this route with 25 sub-standard curves in just 5km of road. Heavy vehicles should not have to brake for 35kmh and 45kmh downhill bends on a State Highway. This is a safety issue way above the plethora of “safety railing” that is turning our pleasant rural highways into ridiculously confined corridors bouncing errant vehicles back into the paths of oncoming trucks.

A Bartletts upgrade should be a matter of 100-percent funded government road safety policy, not a special request from this district. But now the opportunity is open, it is going to need a lot of sound advocacy from our political leaders to make it happen.

Finally, an upgrade of this section of SH2 south should not be allowed to detract from the re-instatement of our railway line — we need that second mode of transport as well, and that infrastructure still in place is far too valuable to throw away for past lack of maintenance.