The intersection of St Leger Rd and Golf Rd onto State Highway 3
Howard Ashmore has lived off St Leger Rd for 29 years, witnessing its development from a rural lifestyle location to the rural residential place it is today.
Howard Ashmore says the State Highway 3 intersection with St Leger and Gold roads is unsafe. Photo: Jesse Wood
Ashmore, his wife Ginny and Mary Webster have launched a petition for a roundabout on SH3 between St Leger and Golf roads between Te Awamutu and Kihikihi.
They’re concerned someone will get killed without one.
“Exiting St Leger Rd or Golf Rd onto State Highway 3 is like playing Russian roulette, there is an accident waiting to happen. When it does, whose conscience will it weigh on?” Ashmore said.
“With the growth happening on this road and the general growth in Kihikihi and Te Awamutu, the volume of traffic has increased tenfold.
“The speed limit on St Leger Rd is 60km. Golf Rd, which is a major arterial link for traffic heading to Cambridge and the Tauranga port, also has a speed limit of 60km.
“State Highway 3 however, which is a national highway, has a speed limit of 80km.
“You get other trucks coming up Golf Rd and turning left to head south. Then you’ve got milk tankers, logging trucks and stock trucks going straight through.
“Amongst all of that, you’ve got cars coming out of Golf Rd – some wanting to go straight ahead, some wanting to turn either way.
“This matter becomes more urgent by the day.”
The petition proposes two points – in the immediate term, to install an Intersection Speed Zone (ISZ), like the one at Raynes Rd near Hamilton Airport.
ISZs are designed to improve safety at rural intersections on high-speed roads.
They detect when a vehicle is approaching on a side road and activate an electronic variable speed limit sign to temporarily show a lower speed limit on the main road.
“That piece of main road used to be passing lane coming out of Te Awamutu, they changed that and they’ve now got a pull over zone to come into St Leger Rd,” Ashmore said.
“There hasn’t been a bad accident since they did that, but it doesn’t make us feel any more confident that there won’t be.
“The main thing is to warn people that they need to slow down.”
The second point on the petition is to start the planning of a roundabout.
Webster had a brief discussion with NZTA and let them know of the petition, but to no avail.
“It’s urgent. It’s a real worry to everyone and it needs to be sorted. We will be working hard to get the petition done as quickly as we can, within a couple of weeks,” Ashmore said.
“Just hurry up and change the speed limit – do something about the danger zone there.
“It’s life and death. The last thing we want to see is someone get killed.”
- What do you think? Email editor@goodlocal.nz with your views, and put roundabout in the subject line.
The intersection of St Leger Rd and Golf Rd onto State Highway 3 between Te Awamutu and Kihikihi. Photo: Jesse Wood
