Straight and not-so narrow on alternative state highway

A South Island road thought difficult to drive at the best of times has been given a $60 million upgrade, making it more ‘‘resilient’’ and safer for motorists.

The inland highway between Picton and Christchurch, taking in state highways 6, 63, 65 and 7, became the South Island’s main road following the November 2016 earthquake.

But truckies started quitting the ‘‘alternate highway’’, as it became known, because they did not feel safe driving the winding and sometimes alpine route.

NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) system manager Frank Porter said the multimillion-dollar improvements project had been spent creating a road safer for truck drivers and the general public. The Government pledged $60m to improve the route after SH1 was closed for more than a year following the 7.8-magnitude Kaiko¯ ura quake.

Porter said it was obvious parts of the inland road were ‘‘not fit-forpurpose’’ for the increase in traffic.

‘‘After the earthquakes, it became apparent that it was a pretty major alternative route and so what we have done is we have invested quite heavily in improving it and making it much more resilient so that if there are times where SH1 is not available, this will be a much more resilient route and it will be capable of taking the extra traffic.’’

Porter said all the improvements to the road, including widening and strengthening, would make it more comfortable for people to drive, compared to how it was pre-quake. ‘‘It’s a difficult, winding alpine route so it’s always going to be difficult driving. It will never be as easy a drive as it is on State Highway1 but we have got it to a stage where I think there is a general level of comfort where it’s able to be used.’’

Truck drivers were quitting after fearing for their lives driving the Christchurch to Picton route.

SH63, which is part of the route between Blenheim and Kawatiri Junction, was dubbed the ‘‘white knuckle highway’’ by truck driver Shayne Ranson. Through the Howard Narrows, a notoriously narrow stretch of road between St Arnaud and Kawatiri, Ranson said drivers would call up on radios to notify each other that they were passing through.

Porter said the statistics of truck crashes along the alternate route had improved as work had got under way along the road.

In February 2017, there were 12 crashes involving trucks and 10 crashes in March. In October and November last year, two truck crashes were recorded for each month. There were a total of 79 truck crashes recorded from November 2016 to mid-December

2017. Of those 79 heavy vehicle crashes, 11 resulted in roll-overs.

The bulk of the $60m improvements package was being spent at the top of the South Island where the roads were not designed to carry large volumes of traffic. North Canterbury required less money for improvements as it was designed to carry higher volumes, Porter said.

More than $20m was being spent improving SH63 in Marlborough and $36m on SH6 to Tasman.

Fulton Hogan alternate route manager Gavin Stobie said since

SH1 reopened, the traffic volume had dropped which made a nice change for workers. Stobie said it was unnerving standing so close to vehicles and trucks going past. ‘‘It is quite intimidating when you are standing within a metre of trucks whizzing past.’’

* Anger as roadworks wrap up, A4