Crash intersection among SH16 safety upgrades getting long-awaited funding

A busy intersection with a number of T-bone crashes will feature in the latest long-awaited saftey upgrade of Auckland’s SH16 as funding is confirmed, to the relief of local communities.

As well as the accident intersection, drivers are frustrated by congestion and communities feared that after already five years in the making, the upgrade would be further delayed by being pushed into the next budget cycle.

But Waka Kotahi has now confirmed funding for stage two of the safety upgrades from Brigham's creek to Kumeu, even as stage one has been put on hold for the last two years because of legal issues with a local landowner.

Stage two includes a new roundabout for the SH16 and Riverhead-Coatsville highway intersection, as well as widening the roads, and adding a shared walking and cycling path.

There have been 18 crashes in five years at this busy intersection according to Waka Kotahi’s Crash Analysis System (CAS), four resulting in minor injuries.

Local National MP Chris Penk has says even a temporary roundabout would help while waiting for the new one while a community leader also urges drivers to improve behaviour.

“If it was going to take a long time for them to get the proper official roundabout then it seemed to me it would be helpful to at least, temporarily...to avoid so many t-bone crashes as we have been seeing, and also in the hope that it will ease some of the congestion difficulties,” said Penk.

Waka Kotahi said this was not possibile, but the ban on right turns from Coatsville Riverhead Highway onto SH16 will be an interim safety measure while the design, property purchase and consenting for Stage Two is underway.

LOCALS HAVE BEEN WAITING AWHILE FOR SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS ON THIS BUSY SH16 SECTION. PHOTO: LUCY MCCONNELL.

Congestion on these roads leads to frustration, says Kumeu Community Action Chairman Guy Wishart.

“The problem is that at the moment, our community don't seem to know how to merge properly, and so you get some people that are so nice, that stop for five cars and they stop everybody behind them ... and so you get this stop-start thing which causes this concertina effect and you get no traffic movement.

“Some people won't stop and they’ll keep pushing through or driving erratically and that's where we get people taking a risk trying to get into the traffic, and that's where you get accidents.”

Rodney Local Board chairman Phelan Pirrie said though there would be some congestion relief initially, the proposed upgrades will not be a long term fix.

“These [upgrades] will primarily address safety, so putting a roundabout in stops the traffic turning right, for instance across the highway,” he says.

“Three years after it is done there will be a benefit and at that point, I would imagine more housing will start being built and those benefits will go.”

More information about the progress of the upgrades to SH16 can be found here.