Subscribe to RSSSH16 Black Spot Eliminated
After years of waiting, the dangerous section on SH16 in Kumeu has thankfully been sorted with the opening of the Taupaki Road roundabout.
The $4.5m two-lane roundabout replaces the stop and give way intersection of Taupaki and Old North Roads and SH16.
Locals have for years campaigned for such a thing, as it was a crash black spot.
Indeed, NZTA statistics report a total of 40 crashes at the intersection in the past five years – one of them involving a serious injury and 14 minor injuries. Most of the crashes involved right-turning traffic.
The roundabout also eliminated the long wait drivers often face on Taupaki and Old North Roads - very frustrating during peak times.
The number of vehicles using SH16 at the intersection averages more than 20,000 a day and this is expected to grow as the region develops and the four-lane extension of the Northwestern Motorway to Brigham Creek Road is completed next year. The roundabout has been designed to cater for expected growth in the area and also includes a dedicated left turn lane from Taupaki Road.
The project started in May last year. It also includes new footpaths and cycle lanes at the intersection. New bus stops and lighting in both directions on SH16 will make it safer for local schoolchildren to cross the highway.
The speed limit through the intersection will remain at 80km/h.
7 Comments
This is the kind thing where I support spending money on roads. Lots of these little projects will likely have much more impact than one big motorway project
How do pedestrians get around though? Huge roundabouts like this can be a nightmare for those on foot.
20,000 vpa, sounds somewhat the same amount of vehicles using Puhio to Warkworth SH1.
And a round about, 2 land dual carriage way road fixes this problem!!!
I agree with Jarbury about the need to cater for pedestrians at roundabouts (in fact, wouldn’t it be nice if we catered for them at all times…). A lot of these things they seem to design entirely for vehicles, with pedestrians being merely an afterthought if they are considered at all. It’s not only the safety of pedestrians that is not considered properly, but also the scale of the intersection and how far people will have to walk ‘around’ the parts of the crossing.
More urgent for attention than this one is the roundabout at the intersection of Ayr/Brigton/Shore/Bassett in Parnell. Cars speed through it (particularly from Shore Road) and it is very dangerous to cross. Being in a built up area there are more pedestrians about.
I posted this the other day but for some reason it hasn’t appeared on here. Yes roundabouts need to cater for pedestrians but in this case it is in the middle of a rural area with only a handful of houses around. I would be surprised if there was anyone walking through here.
Also Taupaki Rd and Old north Rd are not super busy so it there did happen to be a pedestrian it wouldn’t be that hard for them.
I haven’t seen the design, but understand that they looked at provisions for pedestrians and cyclists reasonably carefully, from what someone involved told me.
Though of course you can argue that it will still involve crossing two lanes of traffic, four times, if you want to go diagonal, using the new refuge islands which they must have put in. So consideration for peds/cyclist, but probably not particularly extensive ones. That said, it is true that this certainly wouldn’t have rated an overbridge for peds/cyclists, so probably okay.
I really don’t know this intersection at all, but it looks like maybe a pedestrian crossing could be a good idea for those bus stops?
Is there much cycle traffic out this way? Multi lane roundabouts are pretty tricky for cyclists in any form.