School’s highway battle
A Waikato school has been left marooned on a piece of land surrounded by two state highways and no safe way for children to cross either of them.
A number of Tamahere Model Country School students live close enough to walk or bike to school but they can’t do safely because there is no crossing over either State Highway 1 or State Highway 21 (Airport Road).
It’s been a 10-year battle by the Tamahere community board with the New Zealand Transport Agency.
A public meeting last week saw about 80 residents turn out to voice their concerns with school principal Waveney Parker among them. She has seen the roll grow from 300 to nearly 500 students in recent years.
One of the challenges the school has is that large parts of the community live on the opposite side of the Waikato Expressway/ SH1 and Airport Road to the school.
Both of the roads have a speed limit of 100km. But it’s not just the daily routine of students arriving and leaving the school that is causing issue, utilising the local reserve is also problematic.
‘‘How on earth can we get to that reserve which is a local site for us to learn about the environment,’’ Parker said.
‘‘We thought we should walk, it costs hundreds of dollars to get a bus, and in the end we had two police officers escorting us, stopping traffic as we’re not allowed to stop traffic.’’
The school also goes to St Stephens Church every year to dress the tree for Christmas – the two venues are just 650 metres apart but separated by SH21.
‘‘We take 500 children across these highways, the management we have is no one is allowed to wear a hat in case it gets blown on the road and someone steps out – even though it’s midsummer at that stage.
‘‘We have fluoro jackets, we do put cones out to slow traffic down as we have so many children trying to cross
‘‘We take 500 children across these highways ’’
Principal Waveney Parker
and it is logistically we are stuck here on this little space.
‘‘So having connectivity across for all of the children would be absolutely a godsend for us in learning and just being part of the community,’’ Parker said.
Tamahere Community board chair Dallas Fisher has been campaigning for some type of crossing for the past decade.
‘‘We’ve had significant growth in the community, house growth, people growth, school roll growth. And it’s not just the Tamahere Model country school but the older kids who are catching buses and biking to get to school.’’
In the near future, there is going to be large growth in aged care and retirement facilities to go with the recent developments of a playground, skate park, pharmacy and medical centre.
And there is also the Te Awa cycling project, which will eventually join Cambridge to Hamilton, with an expectation that 3000 cyclists will be using it each week.
‘‘We want an acceptable safe crossing solution for both Airport Road and State Highway One on and off-ramps,’’ Fisher said.
Every third Saturday of the month St Stephens Church hosts the Tamahere markets which attracts hundreds of people.
Market organiser and vicars warden Jane Manson would like the entire community to have easy and safe access to the markets.
‘‘And I think it’s blessings rather than good management half the time that nobody has actually been hit on that roundabout. But we have campaigned for many years about getting a bridge over State Highway 21 to the other side and that would be what we have always asked for.’’
Waikato District Mayor Allan Sanson said NZTA’s funding for such a structure was a concern with money going into the likes of the Hamilton to Auckland rail passage instead.
‘‘That started off as a $25 million promise has turned into a
$92 million sign-off the other day.
‘‘$92 million to move 140 people. We’ve got to change the way we move people and I accept that and I think it’s the right thing to do but it came out of NZTA’s pocket and that is why NZTA is really strapped for cash at the moment,’’ Sanson said.
National’s Waikato MP Tim van de Molen began a petition to get safe and efficient pedestrian and cycling pathways for the 6000 Tamahere residents.
However, since he’s taken on the project he’s had his own roadblock, having been told by the Minister’s office that he’s no longer able to meet with the NZTA.
NZTA’s Acting director of regional relationships, Ross I’Anson, said that they were improving pedestrian and cycling access at Tamahere through a new East-West link bridge which would provide walking and cycling access across SH1 near Cherry Lane.
‘‘The Te Awa cycleway connections are getting underway, providing walking and cycling links from the city to the velodrome. The Transport Agency section of Te Awa includes a proposed underpass crossing of SH21. This is subject to design and funding approval.’’
He said they are investigating raised pedestrian ramps at key locations near the Tamahere interchange.
‘‘It is not possible to fit an underpass at the Tamahere Interchange due to the existing retaining walls, services and a lack of physical space and a bridge in this location would have similar issues.
‘‘Safety is our highest priority NZTA is undertaking a survey to understand the vulnerable users within the area, this includes the primary school.’’