The growing risk of our killer highways
Congratulations to the Taranaki Daily News for its hard hitting series of features on the dire condition of Taranaki’s state highways.
For decades Taranaki has generated more revenue for Central Government than has been reinvested in infrastructure and services and this systemic milking of our region is clearly evidenced in the poor state of our highways.
It is interesting to note NZTA’s traffic evaluation and investment model does not seem to factor in the very high proportion of commercial traffic on our roads. Taranaki has a much higher proportion of trucks, commercial vehicles and the like, going about their business, but it seems NZTA treats a car as being equal to a truck and so the majority of roading funds go to the main centres as opposed to where the economic benefits accrue.
Roading infrastructure is primarily designed for two purposes; to help people get around safely and to enable economic prosperity. Underinvestment in this infrastructure places lives at risk and impairs our ability to grow our economy.
The Taranaki Daily News series also highlighted the unquantifiable human cost of the unacceptably high level of road accidents in our community. These are our people being killed and seriously injured on our roads and the impact on their families, friends and coworkers is immeasurable. Some people believe it is the poor performance of our drivers that underlies these terrible statistics, but any roading engineer will tell you there are a number of factors which contribute to safety on the roads; driver behaviour, traffic volumes, environment and road design.
Many of us consistently demonstrate bad habits. During an advanced driver training programme I undertook at Pukekohe a few years ago I learned an alarming statistic.
That 80 per cent of Kiwis believe they are above average drivers. The maths doesn’t work. As a nation of drivers we are over confident.
Next comes the number of people on the roads. We have rapidly increasing vehicle volumes. New Plymouth district has grown by around 1000 people a year over the last few years, adding around 600 vehicles to our roads each year. Increased traffic volumes equate to increased risk.
And finally road design. Our roading design was fit for purpose in the 1980s when Northgate and the state highway north were significantly upgraded to facilitate construction of the two methanol plants at Waitara. But in almost 40 years our community has grown, the number of heavy vehicles has grown. The number of lifestyle blocks and people living in our smaller towns has grown.
The design of the highway is no longer fit for purpose and this is evidenced by the mash of piecemeal interim measures in place. The number and type of intersections between Waitara and Bell Block, combined with the factors mentioned above create a potent recipe for disaster. This risk has been slowly and steadily growing over the past decade and preliminary work has begun on identifying solutions. But that work has been undertaken at a glacial pace with the key decision makers residing outside of Taranaki.
A prudent roading authority would have identified a draft workable solution years ago and looked to landbank areas around problem intersections with a view to minimising costs and delays once a detailed plan was developed.
But in the case of NZTA, we don’t have clarity on design, we don’t have clarity on budget, we don’t have clarity on what land will be required to facilitate the works and we have been advised the bureaucrats don’t envisage any significant works commencing until 2022.
Given the recent pressure being applied, it would appear we might be on the verge of a rethink on the timeline for the Bell Block to Waitara section of State Highway 3 and the washout near Egmont Village.
Transport Minister Phil Twyford seems a thoroughly decent man so let’s welcome him warmly when he visits later this year and we just might get our roads fixed and stop the carnage.