Editorial: Not enough and too late for bad road

A Pukekohe police officer last month described the stretch of State Highway 2 between Mangatawhiri and Maramarua as "very unforgiving". Others, more emotionally, have labelled it a horror highway or death road. Whatever the description, the facts are clear: this strip of road has claimed 35 lives in five years, and its crash toll is 40 per cent higher than the national average for highways of its type. Last Friday, a New Lynn family of three became its latest victims. Their death, in a collision with a truck, has prompted police to call for speed restrictions on the 10km strip of highway. They are to discuss a limit of 80km/h with Transit New Zealand. The talks need not last long. Restrictions of between 50km/h and 80km/h at the Longswamp improvement on State Highway 1 between Mercer and Meremere have dramatically reduced accidents on what was once an equally dangerous road. The same short-term palliative is long overdue on SH2.

Similar problems attend both stretches of highway. They are narrow in places and often winding, making passing difficult. Drivers heading out of Auckland reach them soon after a trouble-free cruise down the motorway. Frustration can easily become a travelling companion for those hurrying to reach holiday spots on the Coromandel, or in the Bay of Plenty and eastern Waikato. Equally, both roads leave little margin for inattention or error, particularly that arising from driving too fast for conditions. The appalling toll on SH2 suggests a comprehensive package of measures must be introduced at once. As well as a speed restriction, there should be rumble strips, highly reflectorised signs and oversized road marking. These features have helped to drastically reduce crashes on the road from Katikati to Bethlehem, a section of SH2 that was once equally troublesome. An increased police presence would also help moderate driver behaviour.

These are essentially sticking plasters, however. In the end, the highway must be reconstructed. Transit has announced that it was seeking a $43 million grant from state funding agency Land Transport New Zealand for a 7.2km bypass of Mangatawhiri village. It hopes to start work late this year and finish by 2008. A proposal to divert traffic around Maramarua, due to be built from 2010, is also being developed. There are two problems with this: the Mangatawhiri bypass plan falls well short of what needs to be done; and all the upgrading should be done together and completed as soon as possible. Piecemeal reconstruction creates as many problems as it solves. Drivers revel in conditions offered by a new piece of roading only to fall prey to error and frustration when the highway again becomes narrow and winding.

The facts surrounding SH2 support an urgent and all-encompassing reconstruction of the section between Mangatawhiri and Maramarua. There are traffic volumes of 12,000 to 14,000 vehicles on most days, and double that on holiday weekends. Traffic volumes are increasing by 3 to 5 per cent a year. Already, cars often slow to a crawl. That crawl will, inevitably, get slower if nothing decisive is done.

Transit's long-term vision is a 35km dual expressway all the way east from the Bombay Hills to the Thames turnoff at Mangatarata. Last month's application to Land Transport offered a mere shadow of that. Indeed, it envisaged that only 3.2km of the proposed 7.2km Mangatawhiri bypass would run to four lanes. That does not appeal as a recipe for eradicating risk-taking by motorists denied sufficient opportunity to pass. Transit needs to think more ambitiously, and to take a more comprehensive approach.

Two deadly crashes in less than three weeks provide every reason for according top priority to this stretch of highway. Half-measures will not do; they may merely exacerbate the problems. The immediate introduction of speed restrictions offers a short-term aid. But a dual expressway is the only real solution. The time has come to transform Transit's vision into reality.