Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter today announced an extension of the Government’s Safety Boost Programme targeting rural roads in Manawatu-Wanganui.

The NZ Transport Agency will invest $20 million in lower cost safety improvements on rural State highways. This will include five Manawatu-Wanganui roads:

• SH56: Makerua (SH57) to Palmerston North

• SH57: SH3 to SH56

• SH3: Palmerston North to Ashhurst

• SH4: Whanganui to Raetihi

• SH54: SH3 to Feilding

Other regions targeted by the extended programme are Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay and the West Coast.

“The Boost Programme will target 11 rural State Highways that might not have high levels of traffic but still have plenty of risks like sharp corners and narrow stretches,” said Julie Anne Genter.

“The Boost Programme includes simple safety upgrades that can be installed quickly over the summer period, such as rumble strips roadside safety barriers in high-risk locations, shoulder widening, and improved signage.

“All drivers make mistakes from time to time. Safety improvements like these stop simple mistakes turning into tragedies.

“Rumble strips can reduce fatal run-off-road crashes by up to 42 percent. Shoulder widening at high risk sites can reduce serious crashes by up to 35 percent.

The original Safety Boost Programme made improvements like these in Northland, Taranaki, Manawatū-Wanganui, Otago and Southland. It delivered almost 2000kms of rumble strips, 30km of road safety barriers in higher risk areas, as automatic variable speed signs at high-risk rural intersections,” said Julie Anne Genter.

This summer’s Safety Boost is part of the $1.4 billion Safe Network Programme (SNP) - a collaborative, prioritised programme of proven safety improvements on high risk routes across New Zealand. The 670 kilometres of road upgrades in the Boost Programme is additional to the 870 kilometres of upgrades to high volume, high-risk State Highways in the SNP.

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