Horizons’ regional council transport manager Mark Read said the council welcomed the plan.
“Horizons welcomes any plans or infrastructure that aims to improve road safety and reduce fatalities or injuries to road users,” Read said.
However, Ira Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand interim chief executive Dom Kalasich said the rollout of the barriers should be based on risk assessment.
While research showed installation of median barriers reduced the number of head-on collisions, he wanted this to be based on the roads with the highest risks rather than a blanket rollout.
As we were in difficult economic times, he wanted NZTA to ensure the money being spent on the barriers went to the roads needing it the most.
“There is an opportunity cost with all this expense, and we’re far from convinced that opportunity cost has been fairly considered.
“Particularly now more than ever, there’s only so much money to go around, that’s why we want a risk-based approach, is this really a good use of that money?” Kalasich said.
He also wanted NZTA to engage in thorough consultation with properties neighbouring the highway to consider the potential impact of the median.
“We do need good consideration of the impact of people and businesses where those median barriers are installed,” he said.
There needed to be careful consideration of where breaks in the barrier were placed so travel of those along the road was not severely disrupted.
“If you’re going to make someone trek several kilometres further because when they exit their driveway they can’t immediately travel in the direction they want... then that is going to have some pretty significant impacts too.”
Kalasich said this would both impact people’s travel time and have an environmental impact as it would result in more fuel burned and more degradation on the roads.
Ira Ara Aotearoa had asked NZTA for clearer evidence of the potential impacts on travel time and the environment the barriers could produce.
“Even clearly justify that where they are putting them in, it does stack up on a benefit/cost basis,” he said.
Care also needed to be taken in the design of turn-around points along the median.
“What we’ve seen in some cases is they’re not particularly well designed,” he said.
The points would need to have plenty of space to fully turn as it wouldn’t only be cars using the points, but trucks as well.
“Trucks need to be able to slow down in plenty of time without creating a risk of people rear-ending them... and then making sure they’ve got [a] good line of sight when they pull out,” he said.
The Waka Kotahi fact sheet says the agency is currently investigating where to install sections of the barrier and locations where people can turn around.
People who live along the road will be spoken to as part of this investigation.
Work on SH3 is planned to begin on the Bulls to Turakina section of the road.
Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.
