Stronger submission urged to get SH1 attention at top level
Invercargill city councillors have told staff to make a meatier submission to the Government on the high importance and poor state of the Invercargill to Bluff highway.
A draft council response to the Government’s policy on transport went to the councillors at a meeting on Tuesday.
Cr Grant Dermody questioned whether the letter was “meaty enough’’ and councillors agreed, instructing staff to provide more facts and figures.
“I think it’s got to have a bit more weight to push it higher up the [priority] list,’’ Dermody said.
“I suspect the Government will be getting heaps of these letters.’’
More data on the economic benefit of the road to the community, risk and safety issues, and more facts around safety and the number of accidents would be needed.
Mayor Nobby Clark said he hadn’t seen a lot of potholes when he was last on the road, but did see big lumps that heavy traffic had pushed up on the side of the road. “If a car hit one of those there’d be some major problems.’’
Cr Ian Pottinger said it would be helpful to know how many heavy vehicles used the highway.
The last time he had ventured on to the road he ‘‘couldn’t believe the seriously Third World highway I was travelling on’’.
The council’s original draft said 20% of the traffic was heavy vehicles. Awarua mana whenua representative Pania Coote said there appeared to be “a lot more than that on the road these days’’.
Cr Tom Campbell said the dollar value of exports through Bluff – albeit including the Tiwai jetty - had doubled in the last 10 years to about $2.4 billion each year.