Guardrails to improve safety on two busy hill roads

About three kilometres of guardrails will be added along Dyers Pass Road over the next 18 months to improve safety.

Road width improvements will also be made along the busy road to improve the safety for cyclists.

The work will cost about $7.25 million but the NZ Transport Agency is going to meet three-quarters of the cost as it has decided to include the project in its Safer Networks Programme.

Christchurch City Council Transport Planning and Delivery Manager Lynette Ellis says the Council has increased the scope of the safety works planned along Dyers Pass Road so it can work with NZTA take advantage of higher than expected funding subsidy and make some real safety improvements for road users.

It was expected originally that the safety improvements on Dyers Pass Road would attract a 51 per cent subsidy from NZTA.

“Now that we know the project qualifies for a 75.5 per cent subsidy, we have decided to significantly increase the scope of the safety improvement works so that we get maximum value for ratepayers,’’ Ms Ellis says.

“We have increased the budget for the work from about $2 million to $7.2 million so that we can put guardrails in at more locations, but the actual overall cost to the Council will only be about $1.77 million,’’ Ms Ellis says.

The Council has also decided to increase the scope of the planned safety improvements along Evans Pass Road and Reserve Terrace because that project too maybe included in NZTA’s Safer Networks Programmes.

About $13.3 million is now planned to be spent on improving the safety for road users on Evans Pass Road and Reserve Terrace. Provided the work qualifies for a 75.5 per cent subsidy from NZTA, the cost to the Council will only be $3.25 million.

“Both the works on Dyers Pass Road and Evans Pass Road offer the opportunity to make significant safety improvements for all road users with only minimal impacts on rates,’’ Ms Ellis says.