Letter to the Editor Tuesday August 5, 2014

Another blooper

During the reconstruction of Foreshore Road, Ahipara, everyone I spoke to was puzzled by the drastically narrowed areas created by the curb protrusions into the roadway that are now proving to be as crazy as they first appeared.

For an engineer to design intentional traffic obstructions to slow traffic is questionable and is dangerous, to say the least, but these move into the realm of stupidity. Wide traffic like trucks, and in particular the wide boat trailers that pass there many times a day, almost completely block the road at these obstructions, causing opposing traffic to stop.

This is a countdown to a serious collision, and something needs to be done to remove the problem immediately.

The placing of speed humps should have been the answer to slowing the traffic, but they also were poorly designed and serve only as high-speed fun jumps for motor bikes.

I regret the need to be so critical of the engineer, but I don't think there would be many residents or users of that road in disagreement with me.

We ratepayers in the Far North have had to wear countless engineering bloopers over time, such as the many costly replacements of footpath tiles in Kaitaia's main street, the lamp post placements against the curb obstructing parking radius, creating a panelbeater's dream, the footpath protrusion well out into the corner of Taaffe Street that caused long vehicles' rear wheels to mount the curb, the raft of traffic islands in the town that serve only to annoy, and the only remaining set preventing high vehicles like buses exiting Melba Street lest they take Shackleton's chemist shop's front awning with them, the use of very poor grade tarseal that turned Kaitaia's main street into a bog in summer, and the list grows.

Is there a case for using higher-profile, more experienced engineering firms outside the area that could possibly be safer and cheaper in the long run?

TREVOR CURREEN

Kaitaia/Ahipara