Auckland Regional Office

13 June 2003

MEDIA RELEASE

New Passing Lanes making Northland State Highways Safer

A number of new State Highway 1 passing lanes – both north and south of Whangarei – are improving safety for Northland road users. In all, 12 additional passing lanes totalling 15.5km at a cost of $7m, are in various stages of progress. Of these, five are located to the north of Whangarei and seven are to the south.

Two other important safety improvement projects on Northland’s state highway network are also moving ahead. One is at Waiharara on State Highway 1F where a new 2km realignment, scheduled to be completed by mid July, will straighten out a dangerous accident-prone curve. The other is on SH10 where work will begin within the next few months on rebuilding the state highway through Kaingaroa Hill, including a slow vehicle lane.

Emergency and preventative repair work on slips throughout the Northland state highway network is also continuing at a total cost of $10.5m. In the past two and a half years, Transit has repaired 44 slips and is presently engaged with a further 23.

Regional Manager, Wayne McDonald, says that Transit is having a great deal of success with a new method of repairing slips using ‘stabilising concrete columns’. The method has been used for many years in France and this is the first time it is being used in New Zealand.

“We are using these concrete columns to compact soil and finding that they are a comparatively fast, effective and economic way of repairing slips,” says Mr McDonald.

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