Due to be installed this month, the system aims to help lower the accident rate on a stretch known to be high risk.
While not overly high with a road summit of 400m, rapid changes in weather, high traffic volumes and steep terrain add to the road’s risk, with 70% of crashes happening in wet weather and 40% caused by drivers going too fast for conditions.
A 12km stretch of the road will have 22 digitised speed signs and four web cameras between the top of the Tauranga and Waikato sides of the route.
Signs are linked via an automated weather station to a Transport Agency control centre in Auckland. From there, operators will be able to reduce speeds down to as low as 30kmh.
The trial is being welcomed by the Western Bay of Plenty’s road policing manager Senior Sergeant Ian Campion.
“There has been a significant amount of improvement on that road. The sheer volume of traffic it now handles means even a moment’s inattention can have disastrous consequences.”
He did not see the speed limits as a band-aid approach to a road requiring further engineering but rather a means to alter motorists’ behaviour in poor driving conditions.
However, he would also welcome the day when wire rope median barriers were installed on the route and on its even riskier counterpart, State Highway 2 north of Tauranga.
“Sixty per cent of crashes involve cars crossing the centre line. If barriers were implemented we would see a significant reduction in injuries and deaths.”
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