SH30 Awakeri to Whakatāne safety improvements

Project update

26 May 2023

Designing a safer stretch of road

Welcome to the latest edition of our project e-newsletter for the proposed State Highway 30 Awakeri to Whakatāne safety improvements.

Firstly, we would like to extend a special welcome to those of you who haven’t received an update before and passed on your contact details to the team at one of our open days. It’s great to have you here and we look forward to keeping you updated throughout this project.

Open days a success

The past nine months have been very busy for the team. We’ve spoken to landowners up and down the corridor, we’ve held hui with iwi, and engaged with key stakeholders including NZ Police, Fire and Emergency, freight and heavy haulage industry and cycle groups, to name a few.

We’ve been asking how you use the road, how you hope to use it in future, and if there are any changes you think we should consider making as part of the detailed design process.

We asked you for your thoughts about this stretch of state highway, as well as changes to some specific roads and intersections.

We heard your road is important to you, and you would like to see it made safer for everyone, with a focus on changes at the most high-risk areas.

In late March we, Waka Kotahi, worked alongside Beca and Whakatāne District Council to deliver two successful open days.

It was great to see so many members of the community taking time out of their busy lives to come along, meet the team and give feedback on our draft designs. We appreciated having representatives from iwi and local emergency services there, and to see so many faces that we have built relationships with over the past year.

The sun was out, we had some fantastic conversations, and we were really pleased with the number of comments and suggestions - with almost 500 individual pieces of feedback received.

These conversations were robust, and so essential, so thanks again to everyone who came along.

Engagement is important – what you have told us

Before the open days, we heard your comments about the importance of seeing safety improvements at Mill Road intersection. Our team listened and presented a possible roundabout design at the open days for you to give feedback on.

These designs were well received, and there was general support from those who attended the drop-in sessions, reflecting a desire that Mill Road intersection improvements should be a priority.

Other suggestions and feedback we heard at the open days were a lower speed limit, in particular towards the Whakatāne town end, considering staging the works rather than doing all the improvements at once, and investigating how to make Kope Drain bridge safer.

I missed the open days – can I still give feedback?

While the feedback period is now closed, our inbox is always open. Our team will be finalising the designs over the coming months though. Feel free to get in touch by emailing bopprojects@nzta.govt.nz

What’s next?

All the information and feedback received over the past nine months, including all the conversations we had at the open days, have been recorded and the team are working through them now.

This feedback will be used to help inform what our final safety improvements will look like. We will be back in touch with more information when the designs have been finalised.

Mid-late 2023 - complete detailed design
Late 2023 - apply for construction funding from 2024-27 National Land Transport Programme
Mid 2024 - confirm (or not) construction funding
Late 2024 - construction begins – if funding confirmed

What about speed?

We will come back to you with an update about speed shortly – this will be part of a separate update.

Road to Zero – our why

We have a vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on Aotearoa New Zealand roads. A vision where everyone, whether they’re walking, cycling, driving, motorcycling or taking public transport, can get to where they’re going safely.

To find out more about the safety infrastructure proposed, how they work and why we’re focussing on reducing deaths and serious injuries on our high risk roads, check out our updated safety infrastructure webpage.

More information

For more information on the SH30 Awakeri to Whakatāne safety improvements, contact us at bopprojects@nzta.govt.nz

You can also visit the project page on our website nzta.govt.nz/sh30-awakeri-to-whakatane