State highway safety footpath making progress

Bruce (front) and Damien Whyte, of Kerikeri firm Buildall Holdings, work on a footpath through Haruru Falls, the first section of a walkway which will eventually go all the way to Paihia. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A dangerous section of state highway that has claimed pedestrians' lives will finally be made safe for the many people who walk along it.

Puketona Rd, part of State Highway 11, is often used by people walking between Haruru Falls and Paihia, in particular by tourists staying at Haruru Falls or those who have walked the track from the Waitangi Treaty Grounds to the waterfall.

However, the road is windy, lacks a shoulder in many places, and is subject to a 100km/h speed limit.

Pedestrian deaths include that of 53-year-old Michael Budd, who was killed walking home to Haruru Falls at night in August 2013. The motorist was cleared of blame.

The Far North District Council has set aside $700,000 in this year's budget to build the footpath and hopes to start work later this year.

Work on a separate, 400-metre-long footpath from Old Wharf Rd to Yorke Rd in Haruru Falls is already under way and has been paid for by the New Zealand Transport Agency.

The council's walkway will start at Yorke Rd and end at the Caltex service station in Waitangi, a distance of about 3km, where it will join up with Paihia's urban footpaths.

A completion date has not been set, in part because two slips have complicated the project and pushed up the likely cost.

Jacqui Robson, the council's infrastructure and asset manager, said the walkway would follow the northern side of SH11 to Kaipatiki Rd, where it would cross to the southern side of the highway for the rest of the route.

A specialist geotechnical designer was currently working to establish the most cost-effective method of traversing two slips triggered by storms in 2007-08. The council would then seek tenders, she said.

It was hoped that a contract would be awarded later this year.

Ms Robson said this year's budget allocation was $700,000 but, after an investigation of the slip sites, the final cost was expected to be more than $1 million. Additional funding was being sought in the Long Term Plan for the 2015-16 financial year.

The council has recently built a footpath along Waitangi's Te Kemara Ave. Far Northerners who want new footpaths should contact their local community board in the first instance.