SH2 Wainui Road to Ōpōtiki safety improvements

Final update for 2018

With the help of our stakeholders and your feedback we have developed a preferred option for the State Highway 2 (SH2) and Wainui Road safety improvements. They are focussed on addressing the most common types of accidents along the road.  By making the road more forgiving of mistakes, we can reduce the chance of people dying or being seriously injured if they do crash.

Making State Highway 2 and Wainui Road safer

After listening to community feedback and working with stakeholders, the scope of the safety improvements is more significant than originally expected, and this means we need to apply for more funding to do the additional work.

We’re looking at the following safety improvements:

State Highway 2

• Shoulder widening along the whole length of the road except for at constrained locations eg at bridges.
• Side barriers at high risk locations where there are deep ditches, power poles, trees or drop offs. 
• Edgeline and centreline rumble strips to give drivers a wake-up call if they stray across the line.

Wainui Road 

• Widening and/or safety barriers at six high risk curves that have the worst crash history.
• Tourist stopping bays so there’s room to pull over to let vehicles pass safely.
• Sight distance improvements at Paparoa Road so people have time to make a safe decision to turn.

Wainui Road/SH2 (Matekerepu) intersection

• Roundabout to encourage people to slow down and make it safer for people to turn.
• Raising the road so it is less likely to flood.

Ōhiwa Beach Road/SH2/Waiōtahe Valley Back Road intersection

• Realign both side roads so they are further away from the bridge.
• Put in new right turn bays so it’s safer to turn.

Timing

The proposed safety improvements are all subject to funding, and property negotiations. We hope to come and talk to the community about the preferred option in more detail early 2019.  

More information

For more information on the SH2 Wainui Road to Ōpōtiki project, or if you have any questions, please get in touch with Justin Rae, our Community Engagement Manager, on 021 390 732 or email justin.rae@saferoads.co.nz

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/WR2O