Rail vital to alleviate heavy traffic noise on expressway, say Pirimai residents

Ken and Janet Crispin have been monitoring truck movements and noise coming from the Hawke's Bay expressway near the Kennedy Rd overbridge. Photo / Paul Taylor

The prospect of the Napier to Wairoa railway line being reinstated can't come soon enough for Pirimai residents who have waged a near 20-year campaign against increasing truck movements and associated noise and air pollution on the Hawke's Bay Expressway.

Clarence Cox Cres residents Ken and Janet Crispin attended the final morning of Napier City Council hearings of the Long Term Plan yesterday to again plead their case for better noise barriers and lower speed limits on the expressway, particularly in the vicinity of the Kennedy Rd overbridge.

Janet said the issue dated back to at least 2000 when the Napier City Council agreed to advocate for residents seeking mitigation for not only the noise, but also carbon emissions and dust generated from vehicle tyres.

Some relief was provided in 2006, when the former Transit New Zealand (now the NZ Transport Agency) provided a smoother road surface, the Napier City Council installed a wooden fence at the rear of Clarence Cox Cres, and Hawke's Bay Regional Council planted some screening vegetation.

Since then, however, the smooth road surface had been covered over in 2014, and no further mitigation had taken place, she said.

"We now need Napier City Council to advocate on our behalf - we have been doing it on our own for years - we need the council to put a protection in the Long Term Plan to represent residents to other councils and agencies."

The pair also called for there to be a Napier heavy traffic forum as happened with the Marine Parade group when they were seeking solutions to the adverse effects of heavy truck freight traffic to the Port of Napier.

"Our situation is identical and requires the same level of service afforded the Marine Parade residents since that truck traffic has now become our Achilles heel awaiting proper NCC advocacy and resolution."

Having purchased their own monitoring equipment and a camera, they said they measured the truck noise at Hamlin Pl in May this year, which returned a reading of 89.8 decibels.

They also monitored the truck movements last year, which found that 138 vehicles had travelled the route between 2am and 5am - making it a 24-hour a day problem.

"It's going to get worse," said Ken, who added that the noise made it hard to sleep and was constantly stressful, to the point his doctor had warned him about relaxing more after he suffered a stroke in recent years.

"NZTA says that by 2035 we will have five times more freight on the road - if we have rail it will be two and a half times more.

"We have to have rail to balance out the freight - we need you to speak up now - in Gisborne they are fighting like hell to save rail."

In the meantime, they called for the council to consider reducing the speed limit, addressing the surface of the road, and installing 1.8 metre high barriers containing rocks enclosed in wire cages, sprayed with a product that absorbed noise as well as pollution.

They also pointed out that the government was currently seeking submissions on the Local Government (Community Wellbeing) Amendment Bill that aimed to restore the purpose of local government to "promote the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of communities", which could apply in this case.

They said they were not lone voices on this - that they were speaking for many residents, including ones who experienced similar issues in Bayview and Westshore, and 2500 people that signed a petition circulated from 2000 to 2004.

The Crispins' submission would be considered by the council during its deliberations on the Long Term Plan, scheduled to continue today.