Melville pathway to danger needs altering – residents
A bronze statue of Sapper Horace Moore-Jones will have an interactive viewer and a website thanks to sculptor and defence force artist Captain Matt Gauldie (left) and AUT digital design lecturer Jan Kruse, who developed the multimedia aspect. The two are pictured with a scale model of the statue in the foreground. A plan to close an important access route into a Melville industrial precinct may be reconsidered after complaints from residents.
The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) began building a 3-kilometre long, 3m-wide shared cycle and walkway the length of Kahikatea Drive in November. The $1.4 million project is scheduled for completion this month.
However, two aspects of the plan have caused Tawa St residents Phil and Daphne Ward to take their concerns to the agency, the mayor and their MP.
Little battler:
The Wards are worried at the proposal to close-off the Tawa St slip road, which would force heavy traffic to use the main entrance to Tawa St a few hundred metres further on, which would place the users of the soon-to-open Kahikatea Drive shared walk and cycleway immediately in front of turning traffic.
NZTA placed the plan in front of local residents in a consultation campaign last year which resulted in a mixed bag of replies – 14 wanted the slip road closed, 14 didn’t, and three didn’t know.
Daphne Ward has taken the issue to the NZTA, Hamilton West MP Tim Macindoe and Hamilton mayor Julie Hardaker.
‘‘Closing the slip road is ridiculous. The traffic on Kahikatea Drive is horrendous. I started watching it and thought, how am I going to get in and out of Tawa St every day.
‘‘Tawa St is a residential area with an industrial area at the end of it so it attracts a range of traffic. The slip road relieves the volume of traffic coming off Kahikatea Drive,’’ she said.
Phil Ward said closing the slip road and forcing heavy traffic to use the main Tawa St entrance could result in heavy truck and trailer units stopping half-in and half-out of the main traffic flow to let pedestrians and cyclists cross the road.
He suggested re-positioning the end of the shared walk/cycleway to a safer area of Tawa St.
The Wards had been in contact with NZTA project manager Adrian Khan. A statement from NZTA said the issues would be reconsidered.
geoff.lewis@fairfaxmedia.co.nz