A protester and sign at a previous SH2 median barrier protest.
A protester and sign at a previous SH2 median barrier protest.
Rain or shine, State Highway 2 residents north of Tauranga are ready to protest once again for their right to turn into the side roads.
Median barriers are being installed as part of the SH2 Waihī to Ōmokoroa safety improvements project for the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.
A spokesperson for the roading agency said the aim of the barriers was to prevent head-on crashes, save lives and prevent serious, life-long debilitating injuries.
“We acknowledge these barriers can make life a little bit more challenging for some road users, however we believe the risk of not making it home altogether is much worse,” NZTA said in a statement provided to SunLive.
“Research shows where they are installed, median barriers typically reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in crashes by 75%.”
“This will be quite a big event, so please come along and show how you feel and think about the proposed median barriers,” said a representative in an email sent to side road residents.
“Tell your family, neighbours and friends.”
Residents had also been in contact with Coromandel MP Scott Simpson in the hope he could help with their plight.
In response to an email from Lisa Anderton, Simpson said he simply did not “understand NZTA’s decision to proceed”.
“They are the decision maker, so it is NZTA we have to convince.”
Lund Rd resident Gino de Graaf and former Western Bay of Plenty District councillor and Work Rd resident Mike Williams spoke on Reality Check Radio to talk about the installation of median barriers on SH2, and how they believed the inability to make right turns was likely to cause havoc for local road users.
“We’re not opposed to a centre barrier – we have been, for years, asking NZTA to be sensible and allow right-hand turns into the side roads that they are cutting off,” Williams said.
“We have at least eight side roads that will be closed, and those roads will have near-on 1000 households on them.
In his view: “The argument that NZTA have pitched is that we must have no gaps to save lives. But in reality, the gaps have very little effect on the outcome of saving lives.”
The NZTA spokesperson said: “To achieve the greatest safety benefit – there needs to be as few gaps between the median barriers as possible. However, to ensure the road remains fit-for-purpose for residents we have given careful consideration to the placement of turnaround bays, ensuring the distance between them is reasonable and enables the community to remain connected.”
“This road SH2 has had more than $100 million spent on it in the past four years where every intersection has been improved in right in and right out and they’ve been widened and the speed limit has been dropped to 80km an hour,” said de Graaf.
From de Graaf’s perspective: “NZTA have constantly painted us as being pained by inconvenience when inconvenience is not the main factor in the equation. They’ve painted us as spoilt brats that don’t want to travel further but really, it’s fundamentally a disconnect and a huge amount of arrogance displayed by the entity NZTA to not compromise.
“Boy, have we tried the last two or three years to get any kind of compromise or shifting in thinking and there’s been none.
“We’ve tried the official line and we’ve been trying to get some reasoning but now we’re protesting and we’re putting signs up. We’re constantly working to get information and get other people on board to help us with this. So, it’s kind of come out of our hands now, we the local people are going to act out in the legal fashion to make themselves be heard,” Williams said.
He said he hoped to talk to Transport Minister Simeon Brown and NZTA chairman Simon Bridges about the issue.
“We just don’t know what our next moves are, except for people taking action into their own hands and being disruptive.”
