Aongatete resident Kirsten Warbrooke in front of the new median barrier causing frustration on State Highway 2 near Katikati Photo: Supplied
The installation of a median barrier on a notorious stretch of state highway in the western Bay of Plenty has angered residents, who say it is blocking direct access to their homes.
The flexible wire rope barrier was installed on State Highway 2 south of Katikati in July by NZTA Waka Kotahi as part of road safety improvements.
NZTA Waka Kotahi said between 2009 and 2018 there were 25 fatal and 66 serious injury crashes on the road between Waihī and Ōmokoroa.
To reduce deaths and cope with increasing traffic volumes, the transport agency has spent $164 million on safety improvements.
These included widening the highway and intersections with rural roads, reducing the speed limit to 80 kilometres per hour, and installing side barriers.
But Aongatete resident and former western Bay of Plenty deputy mayor Mike Williams said before the impact of the improvements could be measured, a median barrier was installed preventing right turns into and out of side roads.
"All the residents live up on those roads are affected. But any business that services those roads is also affected," Williams said.
"You take a packhouse based in Katikati, and has to pick up fruit from say Wright Rd, those people now have to go another 2km to turn round at Morton Rd and then back 2km to turn into Wright Road."
Wright Road is home to several orchards, including kiwifruit and avocado.
Williams said a packhouse had also been affected, as well as wineries, and the new layout was resulting in dangerous driving.
"So now you've got people doing u-turns at the end of barriers and trying to access the packhouse rather than going all the way up around (a roundabout at) Matahui Rd and back again.
"You've got people doing u-turns at the end of the barriers just before the bridge to turn into Wright Road.
"And you've also got people coming out of Wright Road to turn right to go into Tauranga and they go on the wrong side of the road for about 20 metres before they duck back across again."
About 1200 residents are listed on the electoral roll as living in the area, but Williams said businesses, trucking firms, farmers, tradies, contractors - many of whom needed to access the side roads on a daily basis - were also affected.
He was concerned about access for emergency services and the extra emissions because of the extra kilometres being travelled every day.
Kirsten Warbrooke, who runs a Facebook page called Residents against NZTA blocking SH2 rural roads, said drivers were finding shortcuts wherever they could.
She said the intersection with Wright Road in particular was now more unsafe than before because of the u-turns and driving on the wrong side of the road.
To stop the u-turns, Waka Kotahi installed yellow bendy markers which were cut down by vandals this week, then reinstalled by the transport agency on Tuesday.
Police were investigating and said infringements had already been issued regarding the illegal manoevures.
Warbrooke said there was a simple solution - reinstate right-hand turns by cutting gaps into the median barrier.
She was also worried about the survival of her AirBnB and her job due to extra travel costs.
"I could lose my job because I do avocado pest monitoring so I have to go up every side road to get to all the avocado orchards.
"The growers are having a hard enough time as it is - they won't be able to afford the extra mileage."
Orchard owner Rex D'Ath was to address the western Bay of Plenty District Council on the issue in a public forum this morning.
He pointed out much of Aongatete was in a tsunami evacuation zone but said the barrier would prevent crucial immediate access to designated safe areas.
"You gotta give people at least the opportunity of escaping. You can't put up a wire fence and barrier people in and just cross your fingers a tsunami's never gonna happen. We just don't know."
The tsunami evacuation zone around Aongatete. Photo: Supplied
An NZTA spokesperson said it considered a range of environmental risk factors and undertook multiple rounds of consultation with local councils and emergency services when designing the road improvements.
"Given the proximity of state highways to our coastline, there are many sections of the state highway network around the country, which are in tsunami zones. Many of these areas have flexible or concrete median barriers in place."
But it was re-examining the installation of the barriers.
"Given the high level of community concern, NZTA is re-looking at the plans for this safety improvement project, including the placement of median barriers, and will consider a range of options."
It said the median barriers and "safe turning points" were now 75 percent complete, with four of the six roundabouts built and the fifth in construction at Apata Station Road.
"Changes to the overall design of the safety improvements have been made throughout the project based on community engagement, evidence, and technical advice and NZTA continues to consider the concerns raised by the community with the current design.
"NZTA is seeking to strike the right balance between achieving better safety outcomes for all road users, while also allowing the community to get around efficiently."
The NZTA board would consider the review findings later this month.
Minister of Transport Simeon Brown welcomed the review and said he expected the agency to work closely with the communities impacted by the project.