By SCOTT MacLEOD
Motorists are warned to buy petrol now or risk emptying tanks at rural service stations over the hectic millennium week.
The last-minute warning is one of many being pumped out by road managers and emergency services on the eve of what they expect to be the busiest week yet on east coast highways.
Police are poised to send reinforcements to coastal areas for 24-hour road blitzes on speed, drinking and unsafe or overloaded cars. The Land Transport Safety Authority has paid for helicopters and aircraft to be used for traffic control and is sending construction gear and truckloads of grit to some areas to fix roads that buckle under the strain.
Sergeant Russell Orr of the Whakatane police says the worst-case scenario at New Year is an utter gridlock through the eastern Bay of Plenty as up to 100,000 people swamp the routes to Gisborne.
"We believe we have done everything we can to prepare for this one-off event. What we need now is help from the travellers themselves."
State Highway 2 to Gisborne and State Highway 35 to the Cape are expected to struggle most under the onslaught. Their narrow gorges, steep hills and one-way bridges are ill-suited to cope. Potential bottlenecks include bridges over the Whakatane and Waioeka Rivers.
Transit New Zealand has upgraded intersections, resurfaced roads, built temporary roundabouts and will divert traffic to help, but says there is a limit to what can be done.
Transit area engineer Daya Govender says material for road repairs has been stockpiled in Waioeka Gorge because it would be too hard to truck in during traffic jams.
At the Whakatane and Opotiki District Councils, staff and contractors are on call and are about to ship chemical toilets to towns on State Highway 2.
Transit also advises holidaymakers to keep spare cash at hand in case the Y2K bug skittles the Eftpos network, and warns drivers to remember their licences for police checkpoints.
Millennial gridlock fear on highways
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