$1.5m study kickstarts plans for notorious stretch of road

A lack of passing opportunities on the road is causing driver frustration and accidents. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

A missing roading link on the notorious Maramarua highway looks set to go ahead, thanks to a decision by the Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee.

Committee members have put a smile on the faces of their Waikato counterparts by allowing Transit NZ to spend $1.5 million of regionally distributed money on investigating the widening of the Kopuku stretch of State Highway 2, between Mangatawhiri and Maramarua.

Work is due to start before Christmas on a $48 million bypass of Mangatawhiri, after a year-long delay caused when Transit called a second tendering round. And construction of a $66 million deviation past Maramarua to the east is expected to start by 2011.

But that left a difficult 4km stretch between the two bypasses uncatered for, until the Auckland committee agreed that regional money raised from fuel tax rises should be used to investigate widening it to four lanes for about $45 million.

"Because it is mostly in Franklin District, it is more correctly an Auckland regional project to fund," Transit's Waikato and Bay of Plenty manager, Chris Allen, told the Waikato Regional Land Transport Committee at its monthly meeting in Hamilton.

"We are looking at managing it in the Waikato, but it is Auckland's money to fund."

The money is from the National Land Transport Fund, and Auckland transport committee chairman Joel Cayford noted that the decision to allow it to be allocated to the northern Waikato this year did not commit his region to any later funding.

About 40 people were killed in the five years to last October on the 35km stretch of SH2 between the Bombay Hills and the Thames turnoff. There have been no fatalities since then.

Officials have estimated that 60 per cent of vehicles involved in crashes on the road belonged to Aucklanders.

Transit's northern manager, Peter Spies, noted in a report to the Auckland transport committee that two fatal crashes had occurred over the previous two years at the turnoff to Kopuku Rd from SH2.

A lack of passing opportunities and a poor alignment were causing driver frustration for more than 15,000 vehicles a day.

The roading agency has provoked fears for the future of SH2, however, as its board has decided to designate SH1 around Hamilton and SH29 over the Kaimai Range as the preferred traffic route between Auckland and Tauranga for "improvement investment".

Mr Allen assured the Hamilton meeting this did not mean skimping on improvements to SH2, just that there would be no significant moves to increase the route's capacity in the next 10 to 20 years while priority was given to completing the four-lane Waikato Expressway from Rangiriri to south of Cambridge.

"That is not to say we are walking away from safety issues [along SH2]," Mr Allen said.

Transit's strategic route decision has disturbed some truck operators, as the 180km trip through Hamilton is 28km longer and takes half an hour more on average than taking SH2 past Paeroa, Waihi and Katikati.

Mr Allen said that gap would narrow as more components of the Waikato Expressway were completed, particularly an eastern bypass of Hamilton.

His board saw big constraints on the future use of SH2 for heavy traffic, particularly Karangahake Gorge between Paeroa and Waihi, given its environmental sensitivity and the Department of Conservation's ambitious tourist development plans.

The highway had also become degraded in the Western Bay of Plenty by ribbon developments and local road connections, making it very difficult to upgrade, although he indicated Katikati may yet gain a bypass - even if only for trucks.

"We are not walking away from projects on the corridor," he said.

Road Transport Association representative Bill McLeod acknowledged that Karangahake Gorge was "on borrowed time" for truck operators, but said more work was needed in the meantime on SH27, a middle route that avoided Hamilton and took traffic past Matamata.

Many southbound trucks are now using SH1 as far as Ohinewai before turning left to join SH27 at Tahuna via a local road, which Waikato District Council representative Alan Sanson warned would "fall apart eventually" because of heavy traffic volumes.

Mr Allen indicated the Tahuna road may be considered as a candidate for becoming a state highway in Transit's next national network review.

Safety measures

Planned improvements to SH2:

* Mangatawhiri bypass: Work due to start before Christmas.

* Maramarua deviation: Construction expected to start by 2011.

* Widening between Mangatawhiri and Maramarua: Investigation planned this year.