On the home stretch

Kia ora,

Great news, we are almost finished work to make it safer and easier to get around Ashhurst, and you will notice our crews packing up in the village centre and other locations over the next few weeks.

Work around York Street and Southern Ashhurst continued throughout December and the remaining two projects, widening Wyndham Street and a footpath connection near the intersection of Lincoln and Bamfield Streets have now started.

Weather dependent, we expect to be finished the work in the village by the end of February.

We’d like to take the opportunity to say thanks once again for your patience and understanding over the past few years while we have worked hard to make it easier and safer to get around Ashhurst.

Ngā mihi,

The project team

Cambridge/York intersection

We were concerned to hear that the new changes to the Cambridge/York intersection were causing confusion. We have been looking into how we can improve signage and if we can make changes so that drivers do not drive across the grass areas or along the footpaths.

This week we will begin making the following changes:

• Add a “No Thoroughfare” sign at the entrance of York St on SH3
• Add a ‘No Exit” sign on the central island on Short St/York St Intersection
• Install wooden bollards to stop vehicles getting over the grass area next to the No Entry sign by the York St cul-de-sac
• Add a 50kmph sign for traffic entering York St from Cambridge Ave

We have also worked with Google to update the Google Maps GPS system. This change was made today so it should now be consistent for everyone using Google Maps.

We will monitor the site to see if any further changes might be required.

We are going to widen this section of Wyndham Street to make room for the extra traffic traveling on it. This will help improve safety for residents and drivers while the new Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway is built.

Making Wyndham Street wider

Work to widen Wyndham Street (between Oxford Street and Cambridge Avenue) is underway.

Several residents have raised concerns with us about the width of this road and the extra traffic on it. We have been working with our contractor to program a start date and at this stage it’s likely that work will begin early February.

We will share a letter and map with residents once we have finalised the date.

The final design includes 0.75m widening on each side (1.5m in total) over a length of approximately 450m. This widening will provide a 6.5m seal, see picture below. 

The additional width provides safety improvements for residents, allowing vehicles to travel along the road more safely, as well as reducing damage to the seal edge and grass berms.

New red road markings help alert drivers to the Salisbury Street pedestrian crossing.

Seeing red

A local family let us know that many drivers weren’t stopping for people crossing the Salisbury Street pedestrian crossing, so we had a look to see what we could do.

Our safety engineer met with the family, who told us that some drivers were just looking ahead, not left or right to check for people wanting to cross.

With that in mind, we decided to paint large red road markings on either side of the crossing to help get drivers attention - there is no way you can miss them now!

We’ve had some good feedback from the family and other locals, who have told us it is making a difference already.

Just a reminder, when driving towards a crossing, check both sides, slow down and be ready to stop for pedestrians, including people waiting at the crossing.

Remain stopped until they’ve crossed the entire road and reached the footpath, or if the crossing has a central refuge, until they have crossed your side of the road.

More information

For more information on Ashhurst traffic mitigation, contact us at ashhurst@nzta.govt.nz or visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/ashhurst

You can also call our community engagement advisor Natalie Dixon on 0279778866.