Stuck in the Saddle
Residents of a town flooded with traffic since the Manawatu¯ Gorge road closed more than a year ago have been told a long-awaited bypass is stuck in the mud.
That means Ashhurst will continue to be inundated with an extra 5000 cars and trucks a day for some time yet, when they were originally told a bypass would be built early this year.
More than 100 Ashhurst residents packed into the Village Valley Centre on Tuesday night to grill New Zealand Transport Agency representatives.
The NZTA called the meeting to talk about ways to alleviate the traffic problems, which hit when State Highway 3 through the gorge was closed in April 2017.
Vehicles must travel through Ashhurst to get to the main alternative route, the Saddle Rd.
That means Ashhurst’s Salisbury St is effectively the default SH3 and the main trucking route between the east and west sides of the lower North Island.
NZTA first suggested building a bypass around the town in September, saying construction would be finished by mid-2018. But a sod is yet to be turned.
The agency’s portfolio manager Sarah Downs said a construction date could not be set.
A partial bypass was considered, but residents were not satisfied with it, and a nearby paper road was unable to be repurposed, she said.
Officials now had a design in mind, taking traffic around the northern side of the Ashhurst Domain, then heading between River Rd and the Pohangina River before connecting to the Saddle Rd.
However, it ran over a flood plain and would likely require lots of earthworks, Downs said.
NZTA was not able to look at buying properties ‘‘because of some issues that are quite uncertain that we cannot deal with at this moment in time’’, she said.
Resource consents would likely require the bypass to be deconstructed once the gorge replacement route was built.
Despite all those issues, and the estimated bypass cost of up to $15 million, NZTA would keep working on that option, she said.
Downs’ announcement did not go down well.
Adrianne Harding said she was sick of not sleeping at 3am thanks to trucks ‘‘roaring down the road’’.
‘‘They get to the corner, hit the brakes, get halfway around the corner and then put the foot down.’’
Her sentiments were echoed by many, with some sharing stories about children not being able to sleep through the night.
Other common themes were motorists speeding down Salisbury St – which backs on to Ashhurst School – to pass trucks, and the terrible state of roads not designed to handle heavy traffic.
Agency highway manager Ross I’anson said officials could put measures in place such as better signage about speeds, changing parts of Salisbury St to slow traffic, and putting in footpaths.
‘‘This is not about the traffic going through – it’s about the community, and trying to get the village feel back to Ashhurst.’’
Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith said he was frustrated. NZTA communication had not been good enough, and could easily be improved by using local noticeboards, the community newsletter, or the local library to gather community concerns.
‘‘With all due respect, emails sometimes don’t get answered and can be a bit faceless,’’ he said.
NZTA committed to going back to Ashhurst in the next two months to give an update on the situation.
‘‘This is not about the traffic going through – it’s about the community, and trying to get the village feel back to Ashhurst.’’ Ross I’anson