State Highway 30 Whakatāne and Awakeri: Is it among New Zealand’s most dangerous roads?

Pulling out of the Shaw Rd intersection on to State Highway 30 is just one of the issues facing residents along the highway. Photo / Troy Baker

A question mark hangs over whether Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency will consider State Highway 30 between Whakatāne and Awakeri to be among the 1 per cent of the country’s most dangerous roads.

“This stretch of State Highway 30 has been identified as a high-risk rural road,” an information sheet published by Waka Kotahi this month said.

Between 2016 and 2020, two people were killed and 16 seriously injured on this stretch of SH30, and most of these have been head-on, run off road and speed related, it said.

Plans to knock the speed limit down to 80km/h, and lower in places, are part of one review Waka Kotahi expects to make announcements on mid-year.

A separate review being conducted by the agency looks at safety measures such as wire median barriers, roundabouts and no-right-turn intersections for sideroads, and is now being consulted on.

An announcement by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on March 13 mentioned the Government would be narrowing the focus of speed reductions to the most dangerous 1 per cent of roads.

“We will continue to make targeted reductions in the areas immediately around schools and marae and in small townships that a state highway runs through,” Hipkins said.

Waka Kotahi told the Whakatane Beacon this announcement would be unlikely to affect the current review of SH30 speeds or the planned safety improvements between Whakatāne and Awakeri.

“Exactly which highways or sections of highways are considered our most dangerous 1 per cent is currently being worked through by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency,” was the agency’s response.

Whakatāne district councillors and staff have had multiple meetings with the Waka Kotahi team carrying out the safety improvements review. They have voiced their feelings about the disadvantages these safety measures will have on Eastern Bay residents and pushed for improvements they feel would help, as have the district’s road policing team, and residents and businesses adjacent to the highway.

On Thursday and Friday next week, it will be the turn of the general public of Eastern Bay to have their say.

The latest meeting with the council was at a workshop on Wednesday this week.

Whakatāne mayor Victor Luca said there were clearly things that needed fixing.

“Getting out of Mill Rd is a challenge. They placated me a bit about the median barrier which has been a problem for the farming community. They say they are going to have slow vehicle passing lanes but I don’t know how many they are going to put there.”

He urged any members of the public who had concerns about Waka Kotahi’s plans to go along to the community open days to speak with the highway planners directly.

“Community activism can go a long way. I would say it was important to everyone in the community. It’s like the old adage, ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’.”

District councillor Wilson James, who has been consulting with the farmers, residents and business people who will be most affected, said it was in everyone’s interest to attend the community open days and have their say on what Waka Kotahi was proposing.

He said at a meeting in December he had the impression that Waka Kotahi had decided against the median barriers and were “actually sounding quite reasonable”.

However, after Wednesday’s meeting, it felt as though the agency had backpedalled on that, he said.

Median barriers were still part of the plan they were consulting on.

“[In December] they were talking about a roundabout at Mill Rd and Thornton Rd and maybe one at the Rotorua turnoff and no median strip. They haven’t got the funding for it anyway and I would say, after the last couple of months, they definitely haven’t.

“They also told us they would be implementing an 80km/h restriction from Awakeri and Whakatāne and that that would be in place by March, well, March has come and gone. Things aren’t happening quickly with them, that’s for sure.

“I would still encourage people to get along to those consultation days, especially if it’s saying that we don’t want median barriers. The more feedback they get the better.”

Consultation so far

Waka Kotahi’s proposed safety improvements include installing a wire median barrier along State Highway 30 between Whakatāne and Awakeri, and roundabouts at the intersections with Thornton Rd, Te Rahu Rd and White Pine Bush Rd.

Shoulder widening where possible would allow for stopping bays for slow traffic or breakdowns.

Waka Kotahi said it had met people and business owners based along SH30 over the past six months and had some important conversations. Topics that have been brought up included:

• The road is used by many people, from farmers on combine harvesters and tractors to get stock across the road, to police and ambulance drivers getting to emergencies.
• Mill Rd intersection is used by many different types of vehicles including high use by heavy vehicles. It has been suggested a roundabout should be placed there or that the privatised section of Mill Rd through to Phoenix Rd be used as a public road again.
• Thornton Rd intersection is dangerous, and a roundabout would be welcomed.
• The Shaw Rd intersection with SH30 is dangerous and the speed limit is too fast.
• Questions about how the barrier would work and make it safer and how other road users would access the road.
• Questions about why a median barrier is needed for this part of SH30. How will the project support future development (industrial, commercial, or residential) along SH30? And, what’s being done to fix the road surface now?

Waka Kotahi said this feedback was important, and it would be taken into consideration by its teams when coming up with the final design.

Community open days

Thursday, March 30, at the Awakeri Events Centre from 11.30am to 2pm and from 3pm to 6pm.

Friday, March 31, at the Gateway Theatre, 30 Gateway Drive, Whakatāne, from 8am to 10am and 11.30am to 2pm.

All are welcome and there will be activities for children.

- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air