Closure of intersection in Hamilton’s south-east causes commuter chaos

Source: Radio New Zealand

The closure of an intersection on a state highway feeding into Hamilton’s south-east has turned surrounding roads into commuter chaos.

In mid-February Hamilton City Council closed the Hillcrest intersection at Matangi and Morrinsville roads until 19 May for the construction of a peanut-shaped roundabout.

The closure of the arterial route, which some residents claim was not properly consulted, displaced traffic from rural Matangi Road and commuters from Morrinsville, forcing it through two interchanges on the Waikato Expressway at Ruakura and Tamahere.

The result has been long delays and queues at both interchanges during rush hour, and at least four crashes.

It’s also a key route for school buses with two primary, one intermediate and two secondary schools located within walking distance with combined rolls of 4500 students, a rest home and numerous businesses as well as the nearby University of Waikato campus.

Ōhaupō resident Claire Ruffell said her 18-year-old son Charlie was driving home from his first day at university three weeks ago when around a blind bend of State Highway 1 he encountered a long queue on the Waikato Expressway.

“He hopped on at the Ruakura onramp heading south, went under the Hillcrest overbridge and it’s a sort of sweeping corner and… you have to merge lanes with the traffic coming from Hillcrest and then jump over another lane to get into the Tamahere offramp.”

The speed limit is 110 kilometres an hour on the expressway.

“Once he got over to where the Tamahere offramp is, he suddenly noticed there’s a queue with a stationary vehicle right in front of him.

“And so he careered at 110 into the back of a stationary vehicle.”

Ruffell said Charlie spun out across the other lanes and ended up facing forward into oncoming traffic.

“To our incredible relief, he has managed to escape all severe injury. He’s walked away with just a minor concussion which is actually pretty miraculous but it’s definitely shaken him up and definitely given us all a huge fright.”

Charlie wrote off his car and has been handed a $150 fine for not being able to brake in time.

Ruffell said her family now avoided the expressway.

She wants a temporary speed reduction on the impacted part of the highway until the end of the peanut project.

Tamahere resident Andrew Mowbray said he was caught in the tailback at the Tamahere/Airport offramp the first day Morrinsville Rd (SH26) and Matangi Rd were closed.

“On the very first morning of the closure, when the traffic was banked up right back into Hamilton as we crawled along, there was a nose-to-tail accident just after the Bollard Rd onramp where a New Zealand Transport (Agency) car had driven into the back of the stationary line of traffic.”

Moments later Mowbray witnessed a truck and trailer brake heavily, locking up, and swerve into another lane to avoid a stationary ute trying to merge into the Tamahere queue.

Over on State Highway 26 in the queue for the Ruakura interchange, there was a three-car nose-to-tail near Newstead School.

Mowbray said he also now avoided the expressway.

“You end up with stationary traffic in one lane. You end up with traffic trying to speed up in a lane coming from Hamilton.

“You’ve got a lane of traffic trying to slow down and merge coming from Auckland, and then another lane sitting on the outside that’s doing 110.”

He said he and other residents tried to warn Hamilton City Council and NZTA the closure would create extra congestion at known pinch points.

“I don’t think they did any assessments of the number of vehicles that use Matangi Road or the number of vehicles that use Morrinsville Road.

“And I don’t think they really particularly looked at where those vehicles were going to end up going to, and how that traffic was going to end up moving around.”

RNZ asked NZTA and the council for the traffic impact assessment for the peanut project but neither did one.

Before the intersection closure, NZTA told RNZ minor nose-to-tail crashes are a frequent occurrence at peak times on highways around New Zealand and are usually caused by driver inattention.

The following week, a spokesperson confirmed an NZTA-branded car crashed into the tailback at the Tamahere offramp the first morning of the SH26 intersection closure.

“Which driver was at fault has not been determined and we don’t have further detail to provide. Unfortunately the crash did cause additional congestion and delays in the area.”

Waikato District Councillor for Tamahere Woodlands, Mike Keir, said a number of residents had raised concerns about the safety of the expressway in recent weeks.

“So as a result of those concerns we’ve been to NZTA and said look you need to do something. They’ve put up some variable message boards, and there was another incident just the other day.”

In that crash last Tuesday another motorist was rear-ended.

An NZTA spokesperson said the warning signs were positioned for traffic entering the expressway at Tamahere in both directions, and from Hamilton via Cambridge Road.

“While the boards are highly visible, NZTA is continuing to monitor traffic and driver behaviour.”

She said mobile variable message signs were the most effective and immediately available tool to directly warn road users of queues ahead and the need to slow down.

The spokesperson said 14 non-injury crashes had been reported at the Tamahere interchange since it opened in 2022, not including the latest one.

“Longer term, and outside of the State Highway 26 closure, the merge and diverge area between SH1C Cambridge Road and SH21 Airport Road are being assessed for improvements in the vicinity of the Tamahere interchange.”

Hamilton City Council general manager of infrastructure and assets Kevin Strongman said the council revealed on 18 December last year it would fully close the intersection instead of keeping it partially open under a stop-go system.

“Decisions like this are always challenging and our focus was on what’s best for the communities affected.

“We didn’t take the decision lightly, but the benefits of full closure were so significant that it became the clear choice.”

Before making the decision the council worked with emergency services, community groups, freight industry representatives, NZTA, Waikato District Council, and Waikato Regional Council, Strongman said.

Early discussions with community groups indicated a strong preference to get the work done faster – “rip the plaster off” rather than drag it out, he said.

However the council admitted it did not consult with any of the impacted schools, and relied on the Ministry of Education to inform parents of rearranged bus timetables.

Strongman said the council looked at options to keep traffic moving through the construction site, but this would have meant a stop/go system, extending construction and travel disruption by up to six months, adding around $1 million in extra costs, lower quality road surface and increased safety risks for workers and the public.

He said the council did not undertake a traffic impact assessment because they understood the likely impacts and detour routes could safely accommodate the extra vehicles.

However, Mowbray calculated the financial and time cost on residents exceeded the council’s savings.

His calculations were made before the war in the Middle East pushed up the price of petrol.

Meanwhile, State Highway 3 traffic was currently being diverted at Ōhaupō onto Airport Road and the expressway to avoid delays while unrelated works were carried out, pushing even more vehicles through the choked Tamahere interchange.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand