Waiotapu Loop Rd is one of the roads that has had changes made for safety. PHOTO/FILE
Waiotapu Loop Rd is one of the roads that has had changes made for safety. PHOTO/FILE
The New Zealand Transport Agency has invested $840,000 to boost safety at five high risk sites on highways in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
Two left hand turn bays have been installed on State Highway 5, making it safer for travellers to turn into Waiotapu Loop Road, a populargeothermal destination.
Along with the turning bays, guard rails to reduce the risk of run off road crashes have been installed on State Highway 35 at Waihou Bay, State Highway 30 Rotoma, and State Highway 30 at Hauparu Bay.
The Transport Agency's Bay of Plenty highway manager, Niclas Johansson says the changes will help improve safety at the historically high risk sites.
"The Transport Agency is working hard towards our goal of reducing deaths and serious injuries on New Zealand roads," he says.
"Our work involves taking a Safe System approach, which looks across the entire transport system to improve safety by creating safer roads and roadsides, safer speeds, safer vehicles and safer road use.
"Safer and more forgiving roads and roadsides, which we have created here at these sites, are a key part of a safe system.
"We're aiming for a truly safe transport system that is more forgiving of human error, so no-one pays with their life when a driver makes a mistake.
"People are fallible and mistakes are inevitable - but deaths and serious injuries are not."
Contractors began the work in February and finished up earlier this month.
