Editorial: Fix for tricky intersection welcome

Napier City Council has approved funding for an upgrade of the intersection of Meeanee Quay and State Highway 2.

It is good to see the Napier City Council taking steps to upgrade what must be one of the most dangerous intersections in the Bay.

Nine million dollars, including $2m funding from the council, will be spent on making the notorious State Highway 2 intersection between Hawke's Bay Airport and Meeanee Quay safer.

Construction is expected to begin in October and, hopefully, will be finished in March next year.

On Wednesday the council approved recommendations for the project to go ahead. An important point raised was that there should not be an environmental impact on the Ahuriri estuary.

However, there is no question something needed to be done.

This road has been the cause of some nasty accidents and in the past year one person has been killed and three others seriously injured. The person who was killed was a tourist who was hit by a vehicle while trying to cross the stretch with his bicycle.

I must admit to being a little nervous when navigating the intersection and you can see how easily accidents can and do happen there.

However, whenever anything is mentioned about a stretch of road being dangerous, we often get letters to the editor and comments on our website about how roads cannot kill people and it is human error or negligence that is to blame.

While that is true, surely we should still ensure that our roads are easy to navigate and do not cause confusion and create pressure situations because of their design.

Roll on March and hopefully there will be no more accidents there before that time.

If there are any other stretches of road that you are concerned about, email us at news@hbtoday.co.nz and we will highlight the dangers.