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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY
Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon and Selwyn MP Amy Adams, made their case to Parliament’s transport and infrastructure sub-committee yesterday to have State Highway One between Christchurch and Timaru become four lanes.
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Four-lane axing ‘a slap in the face’ BY SUE NEWMAN
SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
The Ashburton District’s two National MPs Andrew Falloon and Amy Adams are refusing to give up their fight to have the highway between Ashburton and Christchurch extended to four lanes. Axing National’s four lane plan was a slap in the face for regional New Zealand, they said. Yesterday the two MPs presented submissions in support of the fourlane highway to Parliament’s transport and infrastructure sub-committee and produced hard-hitting facts to support their cause. The Ashburton District’s diverse and growing economy and the growth in Timaru’s Prime Port meant traffic flows were huge along that stretch of highway and that was impacting on all road users, Falloon said. Add to that the increasing number of people commuting between Christch-
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urch and Ashburton and ever increasing numbers of tourists and the two-lane highway was under extreme pressure, he said. “This is a critical transport route and this road has become far more dangerous over the past decade. I have growing numbers of people saying to me they no longer feel safe travelling the road. It’s one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the country and this is why National wants four lanes.” There were 19 fatalities and 109 people seriously injured on that section of road over the past eight years, he said. Labour’s changed road funding focus meant the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) had to scale back a lot of its state highway upgrades but the option they had come up with for the Ashburton to Christchurch stretch was totally inadequate, Falloon said. Last week NZTA released a draft proposal to retain the highway at two lanes
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but with additional safety measures, including the construction of a median barrier to keep the two streams of traffic separate, making it clear a four-lane highway was off the agenda, he said. “There are a huge number of safety issues around this. Slapping a median barrier on a road that’s decades old will create additional problems. This is a big and very important traffic corridor and the existing road is becoming a handbrake on Canterbury’s growth.” Emergency vehicles would struggle when it came to overtaking other traffic and if access to some side roads was closed, a call-out could be minutes longer. And for cyclists the highway would become even more dangerous with a median barrier as there would be limited room for overtaking, he said.
Phone 03 307 9176 217 West St, Ashburton | pb.co.nz