Tuesday, June 6, 2017
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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY
Lighting up Methven Methven’s winter lights were turned on on Sunday night, bringing a colourful glow to the town centre.
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PHOTO SUSAN SANDYS 040617-SS-01
Ashburton low on priority list BY SUE NEWMAN
SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
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There are no quick fixes for traffic issues in the Tinwald corridor, the NZ Transport Agency says. A team from the agency spoke with Ashburton District councillors last week and made it very clear that projects Ashburton saw as urgent had a much lower ranking when they were put into the national roading needs pot. The town’s second bridge across the Ashburton River has been pushed out at least 10 years and while traffic lights in Tinwald have been on residents’ wish lists for years, it was made clear they
were not even on the NZTA radar. The bridge was seen as key as it would channel a considerable amount of local traffic away from the corridor and the main bridge. The agency produced data that showed more than half of the 23,000 vehicles using the bridge each day were local. And it backed that up by saying the problem would not get significantly worse in the future as volume growth south of the bridge was minimal. North of the bridge is 2 per cent a year. NZTA regional transport manager Michael Blyleven said it accepted there were issues on the corridor, particularly for people making a right turn on to the
highway and it had tried to come up with improvements. “We’ve widened the flush median and more people are using it, but they’re certainly copping grief from other motorists,” he said. Banning right-hand turns at some Tinwald intersections had been proposed, but nothing had happened, said councillor Diane Rawlinson, who is also a member of the Tinwald corridor working group.
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