Area of interest. (JPG, 112KB)
This website is to inform about the New Zealand Transport Agency's (NZTA) proposed management of this section of SH1 for the foreseeable future. The Agency is keen to receive your comments on it proposed strategy before formally adopting it.
NZTA is near to completing a strategic study of the route as shown shaded on the attached diagram. It includes SH1 from Riverlands, south of Blenheim, to the Ashley River Bridge, north of greater Christchurch. The study specifically excludes both Amberley and Kaikoura because these localities have been parts of other studies.
As a key freight route there is a high component of heavy commercial vehicles and the route also serves for tourists visiting the South Island. Freight volumes are expected to increase markedly over time, and although there could be some transfer of freight to both rail and coastal shipping there will remain a high number of heavy vehicles on the route.
The corridor passes through relatively challenging mountainous and coastal terrain that impacts not only its highway geometry but affordable engineering design, road safety, and route security as well. The other key freight mover rail also shares a large length of the same corridor. As a consequence both road and rail are affected by the same natural hazards, i.e. when road is disrupted so is rail. The majority of the state highway route provides a reasonable level of service.
This study builds upon previous strategy studies in 1999 and 2001. NZTA's objectives for the strategic study are to identify how to manage this corridor and its unique attributes based on the principles of the New Zealand Transportation Strategy and the recent Government Policy Statement. In summary outcome of the study is to deliver a robust and affordable strategy that will describe how the SH1 corridor will be managed for the next 30 years and a proposed 10 year implementation plan that:
- Manages any adverse environmental effects from the operation of the highway; and
- improves route security, route reliability and safety issues to ensure an appropriate level of service for road users.
The intent of the strategy is to identify management measures and key strategic activities that will help improve the safety, route security and travel time reliability. The solutions to the issues need to be affordable so that there can be a reasonable expectation that they will be implemented. It is not a wish list of idealistic projects.
