Council votes to scrap Guyton St roundabout trial

An impression of what a roundabout might look like at the Guyton St and Victoria Ave intersection. Photo / File.

A trial roundabout at the Guyton St and Victoria Ave intersection has been all but scrapped.

In October last year Whanganui District Council voted to go ahead with the trial which had been proposed by Mainstreet Whanganui which also offered $5000 to pay for the roundabout trial.

Between 5000 and 8000 vehicles use the intersection each day and at peak times a pedestrian crosses Guyton St every 15 seconds at the lights.

Mainstreet Whanganui put the idea forward to better promote the fourth block in the CBD, and for pedestrians to have priority movement across the intersection.

But a design safety audit in February identified potential for a roundabout to cause significant traffic delays on Guyton St and prevent some large vehicles from making right-hand turns at the roundabout.

The cost to install a permanent roundabout and four raised pedestrian crossings was estimated to be $450,000, all of which Whanganui District Council would have had to front as New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) funding isn't available for the project.

At Tuesday's committee meeting senior roading engineer Brent Holmes said a roundabout would create a situation where pedestrians wouldn't have priority movement across the fourth CBD block.

"It won't solve the issue Mainstreet has raised and it may compromise further traffic use also."

Brent Holmes, senior roading engineer for council infrastructure. Photo / Lewis Gardner.

Councillor Kate Joblin asked Holmes if there were any roading benefits that would come from a roundabout being installed.

"None that we can see or none that would make a difference to justify that massive expenditure of money," Holmes said.

The committee voted unanimously to scrap the trial.

Following the meeting Mainstreet Whanganui general manager Des Warahi said a roundabout was what Mainstreet had wanted for a long time but that he accepted council's decision.

"The roading engineer has been really upfront and gave us a lot of information that it didn't seem logical we could go any further, it just doesn't seem to be the option at the moment," Warahi said.

"We'll move on to other ways we can support and develop block four and connect it to the rest of the avenue.

"It's exciting that we've got so many people still passionate about our CBD, as always it's just a case of getting us all collectively together."