‘Hamstrung’ by a state highway
The growing strain a state highway is putting on suburban and industrial Feilding continues to go unchecked in regional transport planning, piquing frustrations.
The absence of any planned works for troublesome intersections on Kimbolton Rd and Waughs Rd, a designated state highway slicing through the middle of the town, in the Regional Land Transport Plan 2024, was a sore point for Manawatū District mayor Helen Worboys when she spoke to her council’s submission at a hearing on April 5.
Increasingly intense traffic volumes on both roads have made access from side streets challenging, while the Kimbolton Rd crossing with East St and Lytton is near a number of schools and heavy pedestrian use. “It is a serious issue. On a daily basis now we are having complaints and concerns raised with us on the impact on our schools and businesses,” Worboys told the committee.
She and the council’s infrastructure general manager Hamish Waugh expressed their disappointment at the section of highway’s non-appearance in the draft plan, a wishlist of roading projects seeking Government funding.
They warned congestion and safety risks would worsen amid forecasts of high population growth and the development of the Kawakawa Rd industrial park.
The latter would increase the traffic flow where Turners Rd meets Waughs Rd, which was already a pressure point for traffic flow and safety.
“As it is now, big truck and trailer units, they just roll out,” Waugh said, “they don’t stop for the traffic because there’s no other way. The traffic is so busy at those peak times, morning and night, they just pull out. And to be honest, if they didn’t, they’d be sitting there for an hour.”
Due to the highway designation, the district council has no control over its connections with local roads.
That power falls to the New Zealand Transport Agency, which works with local authorities on their roading wish lists and decides which projects will be funded.
Waugh said his council was “hamstrung” by SH54, which prevented it from pursuing a number of roads projects.
These would likely include constructing roundabouts at the Lytton St/East St and Pharazyn St/North St intersections with Kimbolton Rd, which have high vehicle volumes and heavy foot-traffic due to four schools being nearby.
“It’s a big thing for our community and we get a lot of frustrated customers, our ratepayers, about what we can’t do on the state highways. So where’s the levers to do that kind of work?”
Waugh outlined three key intersections on Waughs Rd that would get busier due to industry and population growth – at Cameron Line, Campbell Rd and Turners Rd – and the existing safety issues at Lytton St and North St. He referred to the latter as “a dog’s breakfast”.
In 2023 Lytton Street School stopped its children from patrolling the Kimbolton Rd crossing before and after school.
Principal Ben Ward-Smith told Manawatū Standard it was an extremely busy intersection, and it was asking too much of 10-year-olds, even under supervision, to be making decisions amid its myriad of variables.
“It seems strange to say, but we found it was safer for our kids to not have a patrolled crossing. Motorists seem to be more cautious when they just see kids waiting to cross the road.”
The steady streams of children crossing the road meant traffic could now back-up more than 100 metres at peak times, but he said he hadn’t fielded any complaints about the absence of patrols.
East St and Lytton St traffic had two wide lanes of oncoming traffic to contend with as well as the busy pedestrian crossing, and the potential for sunstrike.
It peak times it had become routine for Lytton St traffic to turn left onto Kimbolton Rd then use a turning bay to re-enter the intersection a second time to access East St with right-of-way or head south on Kimbolton.
Ward-Smith said there was also hesitancy and confusion from East St motorists about use of the centre-island holding bay when heading straight or turning right.
The school still patrolled crossings on Lytton St, Monmouth St and North St, the latter encouraging children away from the Pharazyn St intersection.
He said his school was one of few in Feilding yet to benefit have electronic signs on surrounding roads, warning motorists to lower their speed in the school zone, and he wasn’t sure why.
It might be a case of “waiting our turn”, but Ward-Smith said the signs would be a welcome first measure from NZTA.
Resident Sue James, who runs the Feilding Intersections SH54 Facebook page, said Kimbolton Rd remained “absolutely diabolical” at peak times, and NZTA was “failing the community” through its inaction.
The Regional Land Transport Committee received 82 submissions on its draft plan. It will deliberate on what to do with them on Tuesday.