A plan to put median barriers along State Highway 30 from Whakatāne to Awakeri is unworkable and absurd according to farmers and businesses that use the road.

However, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says it believes the safety of people comes first, before efficiency and travel time.

Waka Kotahi, New Zealand Transport Agency, as part of its Road to Zero strategy, has plans to put flexible wire barriers all the way from The Hub in Whakatāne to just east of Awakeri School, to prevent collisions caused by vehicles crossing the centre line. Public consultation on the details of the design will be taking place soon and Waka Kotahi expects to begin construction in 2024.

Phil and Mark Brogden's Awakeri-based business P J Brogden Contracting has been servicing farms all over the Rangitaiki plains for the past 47 years. They and their staff spend much of their working day moving silage, hay bales, harvesters and other farming equipment and goods along the highway.

'When they put median barriers up, no one is going to be able to pass us,” says Phil Brogden.

'It's going to be a complete cock up.

'As it is now, there's a couple of areas where we can pull off to the side of the road and give [faster vehicles] a bit of space so they can overtake, but when these barriers go up, they're going to be stuck behind us. What concerns us is that if there's an emergency and the police, ambulance or fire brigade need to get past, they're not going to be able to.

'If any of the vehicles have a blow out or a break down on that main road, where are they going to go? That's it, road's closed.”

'Our slowest vehicle travels at 30 kilometres an hour,” says his son Mark.

'The rest are around 40 to 50kmh. [Other road users] are getting impatient now, so their impatience levels are going to be through the roof. It's no fault of our own. We pay the money to be on that road just like anyone else.”

The Brogdens have plenty of experience of some of the dangerous manoeuvres drivers carry out when stuck behind a slow vehicle and suffer other drivers' road rage.

'We get abused now. We don't signwrite our gear anymore because we used to get rung up and abused. We get stuff chucked out the windows at us, one fingered salutes – that's now, and if all this goes ahead, who knows what's going to happen,” says Phil Brogden.

He says it was not always feasible to use the backroads.

'We can use the backroads for some of our clients, but we've got some clients that have dairy farms on State Highway 30,” says Phil Brogden.

'They also have runoffs that are down White Pine Bush Road, Te Rahu Road and Fortune's Road, on the opposite side of the highway, so we have to come back onto those main roads to get back to the dairy farms.

'We had an argument with [Waka Kotahi] when they did the barriers down State Highway 30 between Awakeri and Te Teko,” says Mark Brogden.

'They're taking away our ability to be considerate road users, to let other traffic pass.

'They say they're going to have pull-off bays. What use is that? You only have time for three or four vehicles to pass you in a pull-off bay. We're going to have up to 30 vehicles following us by the time we get to the pull-off bay.

He says if Waka Kotahi wanted to make the road safer, it could start by fixing the road surface. He says he often saw drivers swerving along the road, dodging potholes.

'The biggest thing they need to be doing is stop spending money on this and start spending money on actually fixing the roads. I've never seen so many pothole guys out there in my lifetime. There's just little patches all over the place. Just spend the money where it needs to be spent. Fix the road.”

Phil Brogden agrees.

'It's getting dangerous now with all the cracks and potholes. Everything starts moving on your truck and trailer, swaying from side to side.”

Another issue they have with the median barrier proposed by Waka Kotahi is that it will also require no-right-turn intersections with side roads of the highway.

Not only would that add costs to running their business, but it would greatly increase the number of vehicles on the road as people will have to double back to reach a side road. Waka Kotahi plans to put roundabouts at some of the key intersections to allow people to cross the road.

'We're going to have to go to the nearest roundabout to turn around and come back, then go to another roundabout to get out,” says Mr Brogden.

He says with many jobs such as moving silage, taking multiple journeys, "instead of using three tractor and trailers we're going to have to use five, so the cost to the farmer and to us is just getting out of control because of these stupid barriers.

'The cost is going to go through the roof. That's more fuel and more time spent on the highway. There's going to be more vehicles on the road, there's going to be more congestion.”

Louise McDonald, who farms opposite Fortune Road and has some runoffs on Fortune Road, says she and her neighbours walked the cows across the highway every day to graze. An underpass was not feasible in that part of the highway due to the high water table, so the only option would be to truck the cattle to the runoffs.

'We'll have to truck them, literally, across the road. I would like to know why they haven't trialled anything else before putting this barrier in. The lower speed limit, that is coming in soon, or yellow lines.”

She also shared the Brogdens' concerns about emergency vehicles.

'We have ambulances and police go down this road at least three times a day. It could cost a life if an ambulance or fire engine can't get past a slow or broken-down vehicle. She says she didn't think people in Whakatāne understood just how badly the changes would affect them.

'It's not just us that are going to be affected. It is anyone who wants to go anywhere along SH30.”

Rangitaiki ward councillor Wilson James says Whakatāne District Council had been doing a lot of work in the background trying to get Waka Kotahi to reconsider its plans. He had been talking to the farmers located along the highway and gathering support from them.

He says there were stretches of highway at least one kilometre long that had drains running along either side that would not allow for road widening. He says he was starting to see signs that Waka Kotahi was starting to listen.

'At the last community board meeting in Edgecumbe, they gave a presentation and they were much more open to changing their plans.”

He says the problem was that within Waka Kotahi there are different groups in charge of the speed reviews, the roundabouts and the median barriers, 'and none of them talk to each other”.

Whakatāne-Ōhope ward councillor Lesley Immink has also been canvasing for feedback on the plans via her Facebook page and will be collating comments and forwarding them to Whakatāne District Council and Waka Kotahi.

Meanwhile, Whakatāne-Ōhope Community Board has submitted a letter of objection to Waka Kotahi.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency regional manager of transport services Jo Wilton says the stretch of highway had been identified as a 'high-risk rural road, which can - and must - be made safer”.

'We are proposing a range of safety improvements including a safer speed limit and flexible median safety barriers, which will be delivered as part of Road to Zero, Aotearoa New Zealand's road safety strategy.

'Road to Zero sets us on a path to achieve Vision Zero, a New Zealand where no one is killed or seriously injured on our roads. Even the best drivers make mistakes, but these mistakes do not need to cost us our lives. We need to create a safe transport system; one that recognises humans make mistakes.”

Jo says between 2016 and 2020, two people were killed and 16 seriously injured on the road. 'Most of these crashes were speed-related and some were head on.”

Waka Kotahi consulted on safer speed limits in early 2022.

'Safer speed limits are something we can do now to improve safety, as the physical safety improvements will take some time to build. An announcement on the outcome of the speed review will be made before the end of 2022. Even when speed doesn't cause a crash, it's what will most likely determine whether anyone is killed, injured, or walks away unharmed from that crash.”

She says flexible median barriers were a cost-effective piece of infrastructure that could reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in crashes by 75 percent.

'It's a no-brainer – they prevent head-on crashes. When you hit a flexible barrier, the cables flex, slowing your vehicle and keeping it upright. They're designed to absorb the impact, protecting you and others in the vehicle, ensuring your vehicle isn't deflected into another traffic lane.

'If you want proof of their effectiveness, you only need look around the motu. Several kilometres of flexible median barriers were installed between Cambridge and Piarere in 2020. In the first four months of installation, the barriers were hit 40 times. That's 40 incidents, which could have otherwise resulted in serious head-on crashes.”

Jo says when flexible median safety barriers were installed, it did mean those entering the highway from a private access or side road would only be able to turn left, and they would have to use a safe turnaround area or roundabout to go in the opposite direction.

'In this case, roundabouts are being considered at high-use intersections, so people who have to turn left out of their driveway don't have to travel too far if they need to turn around. There will also be frequent slow vehicle pull-in bays along the route, which give space for slow moving vehicles such as tractors to pull over and allow faster vehicles to pass safely.”

She says median barriers did not make it unsafe for emergency services. If a crash was blocking a lane, the barrier could easily be released and dropped, creating a bypass.

'Emergency services would also expect people to adopt common courtesy, ensuring they slow down and move their vehicle as far to the side of the road as safely possible. Emergency vehicles can also use the opposite side of the road to pass queued vehicles and access the incident.”

At the moment, this project was in the detailed design phase, she says.

'As part of this phase we need to talk with people about what we are considering. Waka Kotahi first engaged with Whakatāne District Council and Ngāti Awa. Now that this has happened, wider public engagement will get under way, and this is where we are at now.

'Soon we'll be having conversations with cycling groups, freight and heavy haulage representatives, the police and emergency services, people who live along or near SH30, as well as the Whakatāne Mill, and nearby businesses.”

Public events were also being planned and would be advertised.

'This includes conversations with people who live up the side roads, like Angle, Fortune and Kope Drain roads. Letters are about to be sent to all landowners, informing them of our process and when to expect to hear from us.

'This engagement is an important part of the design process. We need to understand how people use the state highway, their access ways, whether there are trucks or large vehicles using it, how shelter belts are maintained, where stock crossings are and if we need to be aware of any future plans or development.

'The team has a lot of people to meet, and this engagement is expected to continue through into 2023.”

After completing community and stakeholder engagement and the detailed design, Waka Kotahi would apply for construction funding in late 2023.

'We will continue to update everyone during the process.”

People can keep up to date by visiting the project webpage www.nzta.govt.nz/sh30awakeri2whk.

-Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air