This is absolutely terrible: Man dead after car rolls on highway north of Wellington

TinyTim:

 

This is absolutely terrible: Man dead after car rolls on highway north of Wellington

 

It's bizarre - there are so many crashes on the stretch between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay, and yet the road itself isn't at all tricky.

They've tried dropping the speed to 80kmh and putting in wire barriers to reduce head-on collisions or insane overtaking and yet the accidents continue.

The combination of the great view and the lack of a road shoulder removes the safety margin for inattention, but NZTA are hardly going to put up an ocean privacy fence.

It's probably indicative of how many people drive dangerously in other stretches of road but are saved from their mistakes by road safety measures.

Just shows how important Transmission Gully is to providing resilience to Wellington’s access.  Add the Otaki section and there are alternatives all the way except the one weak point which will be the section between the Mackays Crossing to the start of the expressway.  Too much to ask that there be a rapid implementation plan to turn one of the two carriageways into two way when someone blocks one side or the other.

Scotdownunder:

 

Just shows how important Transmission Gully is to providing resilience to Wellington’s access.  Add the Otaki section and there are alternatives all the way except the one weak point which will be the section between the Mackays Crossing to the start of the expressway.  

 

Assuming you mean Otaki- Levin...

When TG + Pekapeka to Otaki do eventually open, people are going to notice how much of a goat track the remaining SH1 to Levin actually is   + there are numerous sections that are the sole N/S link  ( except for going via the Wairarapa) 

tieke:

 

The combination of the great view and the lack of a road shoulder removes the safety margin for inattention, but NZTA are hardly going to put up an ocean privacy fence.

 

It's probably indicative of how many people drive dangerously in other stretches of road but are saved from their mistakes by road safety measures.

 

Back in the day people would say the accidents were caused by drivers retuning their radios as they lost reception coming down out of Pukerua Bay. I don't think so many people listen to the radio anymore so probably not much of a cause. 

Scotdownunder:

 

 Too much to ask that there be a rapid implementation plan to turn one of the two carriageways into two way when someone blocks one side or the other.

 

When I was driving in the UK you'd come across contraflows all the time (mainly for roadworks). There don't seem to be any removable sections of barrier here to allow that. Seems crazy. 

Scotdownunder:

 

Just shows how important Transmission Gully is to providing resilience to Wellington’s access.  Add the Otaki section and there are alternatives all the way except the one weak point which will be the section between the Mackays Crossing to the start of the expressway.  

Yes, this has always puzzled me. Something like an LPG tanker crash on this stretch of road would completely block all traffic into & out of Wellington.

There is what looks like a gravel farm track - maybe it's a cycleway? - from Whareroa Road to Poplar Ave.
Maybe that could be upgraded to an emergency-use-only road with barriers at each end that would only be opened on instructions from Police / CDEM?

wellygary:

 

Assuming you mean Otaki- Levin...

 

When TG + Pekapeka to Otaki do eventually open, people are going to notice how much of a goat track the remaining SH1 to Levin actually is   + there are numerous sections that are the sole N/S link  ( except for going via the Wairarapa) 

Going north from Wellington, once you get past the SH57 / SH1 intersection, there are always at least two routes to get to points further north, there are no longer any places where a single crash will completely block the route.

The bit that @Scotdownunder mentioned between Paekakariki and Raumati South will be the only blockable part of the whole SH1 route between Drury & Wellington

There's Emerald Glen/Waterfall/Valley Roads that link Mackays Crossing with Paraparaumu, which is often used as an informal detour route when there's disruption on SH1. It does have a gravel section, but isn't too windy, so suitable for cars and perhaps shorter trucks. In the worst case closure scenario, I guess trucks would be turned around and sent over the Rimutakas.

The wire-rope median barriers can be dropped down and poles removed fairly easily, but I suspect it's rarely worth the effort for the typical 1-4 hour disruption as you'd need a few traffic control vehicles to drop the barrier and setup cones for the contraflow, and normally by the time they were done the blockage would be removed. Plus, the serious crash unit often takes up the whole width of the road with their investigation, so you wouldn't be able to setup a contraflow until that's over. 

The probability of a big blockage on that stretch of road is pretty low, as it is straight and safe. But if there was some sort of black swan event which blocked a lane for say >12 hours, then I think we'd see some different approaches like setting up contraflows

3rd crash on SH59 in 24 hours!!

floydbloke:

 

3rd crash on SH59 in 24 hours!!

 

 

 

 

and the GWRC fiddles

TinyTim:

 

This is absolutely terrible: Man dead after car rolls on highway north of Wellington

 

Really sad for them and their extended family who have to live with it. Whether inattention, medical incident, or mechanical failure, at least on the bright side another innocent car / family wasn't impacted by this.

MikeB4:

 

floydbloke:

 

3rd crash on SH59 in 24 hours!!

 

 

 

 

 

and the GWRC fiddles

 

As much as I like to malign GWRC (or any local government) in fairness to them in this case I feel the fiddle is very much held by Wellington Gateway Partnership, with Waka Kotahi as the accountable owner of the fiddle.

Waka Kotahi publish a weekly 'progress' update on their Facebook page.  Here's the comparison between their first published in November and today's. That's approx 0.73% and 0.18% on consents and safety & quality assurance per day respectively. If progress is linear (and let's hope it's a bit quicker) that means consents will be done in 33 days time and S&Q in 327! Opening day will be 26 December 2022 . Merry Christmas Wellington and Kapiti Coast.

There was an amusing opinion piece in Stuff the other day that referenced the fact that Waka Kotahi had become a common slang reference, ie the normal "right royal f9ckup" or "complete cluster f9uck" is now a "complete waka kotahi".

Cyril