Slowdown demand for crash crossing
Slowing down motorists who use a Highbury street as a drag strip has to be at the heart of safety plans to improve an intersection notorious for crashes, says a city councillor who lives nearby.
Palmerston North city councillor Lorna Johnson has secured an undertaking that roading engineers will tell councillors what they plan to do before any work is carried out on the Monradronberg-pencarrow streets intersection.
The intersection has been the scene of 13 crashes in 10 years, five resulting in injuries.
There were two crashes within 24 hours in November last year, one in August last year, and in March 2016 a car was flipped on to its roof.
Nearby resident Lorraine Haydock was the front-seat passenger in a car involved in a crash. She previously told
Manawatu¯ Standard she felt a shiver down her spine every time she travelled through the intersection.
‘‘It was absolutely terrifying. We rolled in the air, did a full flip and landed on the nose, but on my side it was only the side mirror broken.’’
A resident at one of the corner properties, Val Brougham, has had to repair her fence three times after vehicles were driven into it.
‘‘I will be happy if they just slow them down.’’
The intersection had been in line for a roundabout, but consultation with immediate neighbours has instead led to a proposal for pedestrian islands and paint treatments to make the intersection more obvious.
Johnson said the plans seemed to put a lot of emphasis on ensuring drivers on Ronberg and Pencarrow streets knew to slow down and give way before crossing Monrad St.
But she said it did not do much to address the real problem, which was speed on Monrad St.
‘‘Some of the speeds are just frightening.
‘‘The street is straight and wide, and the bridge over the Kawau Stream as people are travelling towards Pioneer Highway provides some sort of lift off.’’
Johnson said vehicles crossing Monrad St did not have a lot of visibility because of the bridge, and could run out of time to react if they had slowly entered the intersection before a speeding vehicle appeared over the bridge.
She said it was not enough to expect police to deal with speeding drivers.
The road layout needed to help slow drivers down.
Road planning team leader David Lane said investigations had shown installing a roundabout at the intersection would by costly and complex.
There were overhead powerlines, so the power poles would have to be moved. The road would have to be lowered so the roundabout did not impede stormwater flows that could happen in a one-in-10-year flood, sending floodwater into neighbouring properties. Dealing with those two problems could inflate the cost of a roundabout from $200,000 to $250,000, up to as much as $650,000.
Lane said staff were still receiving feedback from neighbours before moving on to detailed designs.
The council’s planning and strategy committee has asked for a report on all practical options and costings for safety improvements at the intersection before a final decision is made. Johnson said the intersection’s crash history meant councillors should be involved, and not leave the decision to staff.
‘‘There have been so many accidents, and we do not want a death. ‘‘I want it to be a decision of the council, not carried out as a minor work with no councillor oversight.’’