Green light for Marewa shops traffic safety plan

A traffic island is included in proposed safety plans for the Marewa Shopping Centre. Photo / Warren Buckland

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A traffic island is included in proposed safety plans for the Marewa Shopping Centre. Photo / Warren Buckland

A long-awaited project to improve road safety around the Marewa Village shopping centre could be completed next year, with the green light from the Napier City Council.

Last Thursday's historic council meeting by video conferencing approved the plan for the shopping centre facing the busy Napier-Taradale thoroughfare of Kennedy Rd, just west of busy traffic arterial Georges Dr (part of a State Highway 51 section formerly part of SH2).

Backgrounding the history, council team leader transportation Robin Malley said the centre, between Kennedy Rd's intersections with Douglas McLean and Nuffield avenues, had a high rate of incidents over the years, including serious crashes.

Factors included the high traffic flow, conflicting with roadside diagonal shopping centre parking, and cycling.

There had been 92 crashes on the section of Kennedy Rd since 2006, including three serious and 14 minor crashes. Just over half were "rear-end type crashes" which he said could be attributed to the congested parking and manoeuvring arrangement.

He said 28 per cent were crossing or turning-type crashes, predominantly at the intersections.

There had been extensive consultation, a secondary consultation and features of the resulting plan are parking separated from the roadway by a narrow island and an "elongated" traffic island.

Malley told councillors the timing of the project was dictated to some extent by the Covid-19 crisis and the impact on planning, but the council would not want to start before Christmas, to avoid an adverse impact on businesses already struck by the alert level 4 lockdown.