A Petition calling for heavy vehicles to be kept out of Alexandra St has been launched. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Waipā District Council says it is working on long term plans to establish alternate traffic routes through Te Awamutu.
A 127-signature petition – handed in to the council offices last month and presented to the council’s service delivery committee meeting – says stock trucks, tankers and contractors in heavy vehicles are “a danger to our community”.
The petition, included in the meeting’s agenda and later uploaded online, says a bypass would be a “good solution” for heavy vehicles. Calls for traffic flow changes intensified after an 81-year-old woman died after being hit by a truck in Alexandra St in October.
Another pedestrian died after being hit by a truck on Sloane St in March.
Council transportation manager Bryan Hudson said in a statement to The News prior to last week’s meeting while it was unlikely all trucks could be excluded be excluded from Te Awamutu’s main street “at this time”, lower cost pedestrian improvements could be included in the Long Term Plan, due for adoption next year.
Bryan Hudson
In his report to the committee last week, he said the Long Term Plan included a business case for increasing the use of Mutu St by providing better intersections at the Alexandra St and Ohaupo Road ends of town, and taking steps to slow traffic down further, especially on Arawata and Sloane streets.
Because of affordability though, other proposed changes are unlikely to be looked at until after the third year of the Long Term Plan, he said.
In the interim, a council budget half funded by Waka Kotahi for “low cost” road safety improvements could be used over the next three years to fund main street pedestrian crossing improvements.
The call for change come as one company, Fonterra Te Awamutu, confirmed its tanker drivers are already trying to avoid main streets “wherever possible”.
“We are doing so because safety is a top priority for our tanker drivers,” Fonterra Te Awamutu depot manager Simon Aykroyd said.
“…the recent fatality on Alexandra Street makes it clear…” the unidentified petition writer said, “… stock trucks, tankers and
contractors in heavy vehicles present a danger to our community.”
“Concerned citizens would like all heavy vehicles to be excluded from using the main streets of Te Awamutu.”
Hudson said it was entirely understandable that there were concerns in the community.
A business case for a heavy vehicle bypass commissioned last year showed it would come at a “high cost”.
