SH2: A long way from the horror highway

Rob Campbell.

Rob Campbell

Waka Kotahi

Regional manager of maintenance and operations Bay of Plenty – Waikato

OPINION

In 2016, Waihī to Tauranga was dubbed “the horror highway” and the community asked us to ‘fix the bl**dy road’. We’ve come a long way since then, from developing the business case on how to fix this road, through to celebrating safety improvements completed north of Katikati. We know these are already making a positive difference.

It’s a good time to reflect on the importance of this work, as our crews shift their focus to the installation of flexible median barriers and construction of roundabouts on the southern stretch of SH2 between Katikati and Ōmokoroa. Approximately 14km of median barrier will be installed between Katikati and Ōmokoroa by mid-2026 (the first 6km section is to be installed mid-2024 following the completion of the roundabouts at Sharp Road and Lockington and Matahui Roads).

On this 14km road, 40 per cent of crashes that resulted in death or serious injury were due to head-on collisions. By installing barriers, we can prevent many of these happening in the future.

Once these improvements are completed, it is expected to reduce road-related trauma by 75 per cent. That means far fewer crashes and road closures for all road users, which in turn will increase the efficiency and reliability of journeys for everyone.

In the event of a serious crash, the road is designed to be wide enough to allow emergency vehicles through – work to widen this 40km corridor is already complete.

With any large road safety project there’s a balance between community safety and convenience, and at many of our community engagement sessions we’ve heard varying perspectives on this. Some people are also unhappy that their specific intersection is not getting a roundabout.

For progress to happen, a balance must be struck, and decisions made.

Multiple factors contribute to these decisions, with each intersection along the corridor assessed against 24 factors – including availability of land, terrain, environmental impacts, crash rates, traffic volumes, and spacing between turnaround points.

We understand that the addition of median barrier is going to require some adjustment to the way people use the road. Bus routes may slightly change. When leaving the side road you live on, rather than waiting for an opportunity to turn right across an increasingly busy state highway, you will simply turn left and travel to the nearest roundabout.

A good example of how effective they are is the SH1 Centennial Highway, just north of Wellington. In the 11 years leading up to the installation of media barriers and the lowering of the speed limit to 80km/h, 17 people were killed and 15 seriously injured on this stretch of road.

Since these improvements were made, the Centennial Highway barrier has been hit over 200 times without a single death. Median barriers work.

These changes may mean some people need to travel further to make a right turn, or consider their journeys differently following these upgrades. However, the risk of not making it home altogether is much worse. Let’s not forget how far we have come from the horror highway.