State Highways you'd like to see improved

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › State Highways you'd like to see improved

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MikeB4
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#1087786 12-Jul-2014 16:03

alasta:
DarthKermit: I haven't driven over it, but I see that a good section of the worst hair pin bends were removed from the Rimutaka highway. At least it's better than it was.

Yes, they did a lot of work near the summit on the Upper Hutt side, and it's made a big difference.

The Kaikoura coast is a real challenge and I can't see much of that road improving for a long time.

I could be wrong, but as far as I recall there are no passing lanes on that long straight heading out of Kaikoura to the south. It would be really good to put a passing lane in there so that cars have a final opportunity to pass any trucks or campervans before hitting those funny little cliff face tunnels and the ranges.

I love driving the Rimutaka's, not so much when we had the boat though but now no probs

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

charsleysa

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#1087789 12-Jul-2014 16:22

Mandatory center barriers on all major highways anyone?

It would prevent a lot of deaths and with NZ's bad driving record I know I would personally feel safer knowing that I'm not gonna get smashed headon from someone being drunk/asleep/overtaking like an idiot.

Regards
Stefan Andres Charsley

MikeB4

MikeB4
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#1087791 12-Jul-2014 16:26

charsleysa: Mandatory center barriers on all major highways anyone?

It would prevent a lot of deaths and with NZ's bad driving record I know I would personally feel safer knowing that I'm not gonna get smashed headon from someone being drunk/asleep/overtaking like an idiot.

A good idea but this could only be done on roads with multiple lanes

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

oxnsox

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#1087812 12-Jul-2014 17:37

They've slowed the coastal bit south of Kiakoura to 80kph, but realistically you can't do much more than that anyway.

Don't know about 4 laning SH-1 over its length but think it should be 4 lanes from Wellington thru to Levin. With a goal to take it all the way thru to Bulls. Aim should be to 3 lane it for the balance of its route north (3rd lane direction dependent on topography)

In the South Iskand it'd be good to see the 1 lane bridge over the Hurunui replaced (see note below), and extend SH-1 motorway north of Christchurch to bypass Woodend. Then 3 labe thru to Wapara turnoff.
Theres plans in the works to extend Christchurch southern motorway too, but these should extend past Rolleston.

We really have to do a better job of transitioning from highways to city streets and from motorways to highways.Too often the transitions are on the wrong side of intersections I feel.

(Note:Yes there is still a 1 lane bridge on SH-1 north of Christchurch. Next 1 lane bridge on SH-1 is a little south of Kaitaia)

DarthKermit

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#1087823 12-Jul-2014 18:39

Benoire: Expect to see less and less money spent on the maintenance or improvement of the existing network. Currently the 'Roads of National Significance' are using practically all of the budgets available in the National Land Transport Fund; this fund is generated from fuel excise, Road User Charges etc.

This only set to get worse when the NZTA change their assistance rates for local authorities such as Auckland receiving the least at 50% for fundable works despite putting in around 2/3rds of the overall NLTF. It appears that the NZTA have recognised the falling vehicle use across the country and are proposing to reduce their funding of local road maintenance to the point where a local road will only be fundable once it is falling apart; so goodbye to preventative maintenance and hello to pot hole central!

Source: I'm a principal engineer for a road controlling authority who deals with the NZTA on a regular basis.

Hopefully once the Roads of National Significance are completed or nearly completed (I'll have to look up when that's projected to be), there will be more money available for other less 'sexy' roading improvements.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

t92300

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#1087830 12-Jul-2014 19:13

joker97:
SteveON: Whilst you're at it, can you ask about 2million people to immigrate to NZ? Our country can't sustain any real improvements. Our population is just too small.

And do what? Unemployment is quite high, not sure about job prospects.

Manual labor, making roads ...

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turnin

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#1087834 12-Jul-2014 19:22

When you "improve" roads be careful what you wish for. Long straight wide roads are boring, better to spend the money on driver training

Benoire

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#1087844 12-Jul-2014 19:33

Also remember that roads ARE NOT cheap, really they're not. Waterview tunnel in Auckland is expected to cost $16m annually in maintenance costs. That's a single 1.3km'ish length of road costing $16m a year! God forbid some of these RONS with their very high costs, including some nasty construction costs. Driving training and better use of the existing stock plus upgrades at areas with safety issues is more appropriate.

Kyanar

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#1087851 12-Jul-2014 20:18

The government has a solution to that: charge you to use them! Honestly, funding for roading in this country is a shambles.

oxnsox

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#1087870 12-Jul-2014 21:02

We're not the only country having trouble funding road maintenance. I remember hearing on radio a month or so back that the United States federal road funding authority was close to broke. But I had to laugh when I heard the reason. Apparently the move to more fuel efficient vehicles there has been so successful they're selling less fuel and collecting less taxes. ...

Benoire

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#1087877 12-Jul-2014 21:20

Very similar here, there are less vehicle kms travelled since around 2006 and as such the fund that supplies the NZTA with their budgets is reducing each year, and with the focus on RONS there is less in the pot for other stuff!

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Shoes2468

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#1087884 12-Jul-2014 21:49

My suggestion to improve the sh1 north of Christchurch is simple restart ferry services from Christchurch to Wellington, this would mean less traffic on the road especially all the heavy trucks beating up those roads on a regular basis, and slowing up regular traffic

allan

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#1087917 12-Jul-2014 23:06

SH3 north of New Plymouth, Mt Messenger section, is both awkward to drive and a nightmare to keep maintained. Would have been sensible to actually put the road along the coast between Uruti and Tongaporutu (where the gas pipeline runs) in the first place, but no chance of that ever happening these days.

Kyanar

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#1088004 13-Jul-2014 10:46

Benoire: Very similar here, there are less vehicle kms travelled since around 2006 and as such the fund that supplies the NZTA with their budgets is reducing each year, and with the focus on RONS there is less in the pot for other stuff!

The question is, why is it reducing? If it's due to rising public transport use, that would indicate that devolving maintenance responsibility to regional councils is actually a good idea as their funding pot will be increased (Auckland Transport holds 50% of Auckland's rates take as it is), and if it's due to more use of hybrid vehicles, perhaps it's time to drop the fuel tax and apply it like it is for diesel - calculated based on mileage at the end of the year.

Mark

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#1088027 13-Jul-2014 11:43

One of the more subtle problems NZ has with it's roads is that the companies contracted out to do the work are f'ing useless, bordering on committing fraud.

I bit more effort on having work supervised and approved by the people paying the bills would do wonders.

A good example for you ... Dome Valley north of Auckland, contracts went in and did no prep work and just sprayed tar and sprinkled 5mm chip over a 3km stretch, the work lasted less than one day (no exaggeration, the logging trucks wore it down to glass smooth tar in an evening), their next effort was to run a machine over the road to scrape the top layer off, they botched that as well the machine was obviously driven too fast and they ended up with 3km of scoured tracks in the seal (motorbikes basically get stuck in the rut and have to follow it to the end!), to fix this master piece they tipped more tar on top and used 10mm chip ... so now there is rough noisy tracked road with piles of 10mm chip at the side of the road (logging trucks again) .. this lasted 3 days, the next big rain came and ate at it and the traffic then chewed the little holes into big pot holes .... so this supposedly "new" surface is covered in patches already.

Wonder how much that cost to do and why they even paid the contracts for the job ??

If they employed people to supervise the jobs and deny any payment for a job not done properly we'd save shed loads of cash in tax.

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