Improvements needed on State Highway 1 near Lake Taupō, but solutions differ

Krill oil and milk powder leak into Lake Taupo after a truck crashed on SH1. Photo / WRC Facebook page

Trucking industry leaders are backing calls for safety improvements to the narrow winding road on the eastern side of Lake Taupō.

But its solution to the problem differs from that of the Taupō District Council.

A freight truck driver suffered moderate injuries after crashing and rolling his vehicle into the lake on Sunday morning.

The truck was carrying krill oil with milk powder, and forced the road to close for more than 24 hours while the spillage was cleaned up.

In 2002, a pile of logs fell from a truck into the lake, and in 2009, a driver was killed when a truck plunged 25 metres into the water.

Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand had previously criticised Waka Kotahi for focusing solely on reducing speeds, rather than maintaining the safety of roads.

Chief executive Nick Leggett told RNZ’s Morning Report his group had voiced its concerns for a number of years, and wanted to see the stretch of road at Bulli Point widened because it was “extremely tight” for trucks.

Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett. Photo / Supplied

There were detours around the other side of the lake, but State Highway 1 was quickest for truck drivers to travel on.

Leggett said Waka Kotahi had said it was aware of the concerns and would work to improve it over time.

But, he said, this was an example of a road known to be dangerous that was not improved quickly enough because of funding constraints.

“This is the sort of piecemeal attitude we get to infrastructure in New Zealand,” he told Morning Report.

“A lack of long-term thinking, a lack of safety improvements, and we see, sadly, from what happened in the last 24 hours, the results of that.”

“It’s a priority in resources, but it’s something that does compromise safety on our roads and, in my view, leads to more accidents.”

Taupō District Council chief executive Gareth Green told Morning Report the lake was a taonga and had to be protected from environmental danger.

Teams had been down to the lake to clear it of the krill oil with milk powder as best they could, but “large volumes” had fallen into it.

“That will inevitably have an issue on wildlife and fish life and on our water,” Green said.

“That lake is a taonga for us, so anything going in there is anything too much.”

Green didn’t believe widening the road was possible given there was rock overhang and “big drops” off to the lake – but there was an alternative route that could be built, bypassing the area altogether.

“It’s been out there for about 30 years, 40 years in the plans - and obviously, things only get more expensive as time goes on.”

Green couldn’t give a number in dollars, but said it would be a “big bill”. It was worth it, he said, given the importance of Lake Taupō.

“It’s our freshwater taonga. It provides water all through the Waikato into Auckland, so protecting that water quality and that lake is of utmost importance nationally, and therefore, for us, is a real priority.

“All we are asking is for that to be investigated, pulled up the priority list and put into the plans.”

Green told Morning Report that not only are more people dying on that stretch of road, but there would be an “environmental disaster”.