SH23/SH39 intersection safety improvements

5 April 2023

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has been looking at options to make the intersection of State Highway 23 and State Highway 39 in Whatawhata safer, to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on these roads.

We believe the best approach to improving safety at this site is a roundabout. To help us finalise our designs and fully understand the issues at this intersection, we asked locals and regular road users to give us their views on our proposed safety improvements.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on this important project. You can view our engagement summary here to find out what we did and what we heard, along with our response to some of the common themes raised.

Pedestrian crossing – what do you think?

As noted in the engagement summary, there was feedback around the location of the proposed raised pedestrian crossing on SH39 with people requesting that a zebra style crossing be located nearer to the middle of the main area of shops rather than as part of the roundabout.

As a result of the feedback received, we are currently working through options to relocate the proposed raised pedestrian crossing further north on SH39. We are looking at a zebra style crossing between the Village Café and the Backyard Bar and Eatery/His and Hers Espresso Bar area.

If we go ahead with this crossing, there will be a loss of car parks on the northbound lane (Village Café side) of eight car parks (50m in length) and three car parks (17m) on the southbound lane outside His and Hers Espresso Bar. The loss of parking space would be due to the need for safe sight lines as well as the space that the crossing would take up.

We are interested in your feedback around this and encourage you to email Waikato.projects@nzta.govt.nz with your thoughts by Monday 17 April 2023.

What's going to happen next?

From here, we will take into account the feedback received and see whether any tweaks need to be made to our initial design (including any additional feedback received on the pedestrian crossing mentioned above). Conversations with landowners, mana whenua and key stakeholders will be ongoing.

We’ll then apply for construction funding and consents under the Resource Management Act. The approved pre-implementation phase funding covers the design and consents but we’ll still need to apply for around $8 million for construction in the 2021–24 National Land Transport Programme (NLTP).

There is no guarantee this funding will be made available as there are funding pressures nationally, although the project will be in the best possible position to proceed should funding be granted. If the project does not get further funding, the intersection upgrade will be put on hold until further funding is made available.

We are committed to keeping the community updated throughout this process.

More information

For more information on the SH23/SH39 intersection safety improvements, contact us at waikato.projects@nzta.govt.nz

Visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/sh23-sh39-intersection-safety-improvements