Wire barrier for black spot after road-building stalls

A notoriously dangerous section of State Highway 1 north of Wellington is to get a wire rope median barrier, says state roading agency Transit New Zealand.

In August, four people died on the section of road known as Centennial Highway - between Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki - after their car crossed the centre line and collided head-on with a four-wheel-drive.

It was the second fatal crash on the section of road this year. In the first, in April, two people died.

Transit's Wellington region manager Brian Hasell said the agency would install a wire rope median barrier along 700m of the 5km section of road.

The agency had previously decided against a median barrier because of the narrow and difficult nature of the road, but reconsidered its options after the latest multiple fatal accident.

"A wire rope barrier in such a narrow situation has not been tried before anywhere in the world, so we will do it as a carefully monitored trial," he said.

There was no immediate timeline for the work as Transit needed to discuss its plan with emergency services and the trucking industry.


Mr Hasell said that if the trial went well, Transit would look at extending the barrier the whole 5km length of the highway.

He said the temporary 80km/h speed limit would remain in place and would eventually become permanent.

So far this year, the Land Transport Safety Authority has recorded the two fatal crashes, resulting in six deaths, as well as one minor injury crash and three non-injury crashes on the highway.

In 2001, Wellington coroner Garry Evans, in inquest findings on eight deaths in five crashes on the highway in 2000, recommended that an alternative route, dubbed Transmission Gully, be built as soon as possible to reduce the risk of head-on crashes between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay.

But plans for the road have stalled after revelations this year that it would cost $830 million and take about 10 years to build.

- NZPA