North Canterbury News: January 18, 2024
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NEWS<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Canterbury</strong> <strong>News</strong>, <strong>January</strong> <strong>18</strong>, <strong>2024</strong><br />
Woodend bypass still apriority<br />
5<br />
TheWidest<br />
MusicVariety<br />
By SHELLEY TOPP<br />
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has<br />
confirmed the Nationalled Coalition<br />
Government is committed to<br />
constructing the Woodend bypass.<br />
Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey made<br />
apreelection promise to the ‘‘patient<br />
community of Woodend, as well as the<br />
large commuting contingent who drive<br />
in and out of Christchurch daily from<br />
around <strong>North</strong> <strong>Canterbury</strong>”, that a<br />
National Government would ‘‘build<br />
the Belfast to Pegasus Motorway<br />
including the Woodend bypass, with<br />
construction starting in the first term<br />
of Government’’.<br />
However,there were fearsinthe<br />
community that the bypass project<br />
might be scrapped under the new<br />
Government’s 100day action plan and<br />
the search to find funds for National's<br />
promised tax cuts.<br />
WoodendSefton Community Board<br />
chairperson Shona Powell, alongtime<br />
campaigner for the bypass, is<br />
relieved to learnofthe new<br />
Government's commitment to the<br />
project.<br />
There is an urgent need for abypass,<br />
Shona says.<br />
‘‘The ChristmasNewYear traffic<br />
has been diabolical.<br />
‘‘People can’t get out of side roads,<br />
they can’t get across the street and if<br />
there is afirealarm, firefighters<br />
struggle to get to the station, the traffic<br />
volumes are so high, and much of it is<br />
heavy traffic vehicles.’’<br />
Mr Brown said he was ‘‘ writing the<br />
Government Policy Statement on land<br />
transport, which will focus on<br />
delivering new Roads of National<br />
Significance across the country,<br />
including the Woodend bypass’’.<br />
However,hewas unable to say when<br />
workonthe much awaited Woodend<br />
Roading solutions ... National transport spokesperson Simeon Brown (left) and<br />
Waimakariri candidate Matt Doocey (right) discuss transport solutions with AA <strong>Canterbury</strong><br />
/West Coast district councillor Alan Turner in October last year.<br />
PHOTO: FILE<br />
bypass project might begin, or when<br />
the likely completion date might be.<br />
With uncertainty surrounding those<br />
timeframes, and the likelihood they<br />
will be lengthy, Shona is hoping in the<br />
interim the installation of additional<br />
safety measures, already under<br />
consideration by the NZ Transport<br />
Agency/Waka Kotahi such as installing<br />
anorighthand turn at the end of the<br />
RangioraWoodend Road, installing a<br />
roundabout at the State Highway One<br />
and Woodend Beach Road<br />
intersection, and investigating the<br />
feasibility of an underground walkway<br />
at or near the roundabout at the<br />
Pegasus/Ravenswood intersection,<br />
can be approved as soon as possible<br />
for the heavily congested and<br />
dangerous Woodend section of State<br />
Highway One.<br />
The NZTA/Waka Kotahi Agency was<br />
asked to comment on whether these<br />
additional safety measures will be<br />
given an urgent priority to make the<br />
Woodend section of State Highway<br />
One safer while the community waits<br />
for abypass, but declined.<br />
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