Transport minister Simeon Brown says the old State Highway One through Cambridge has sufficient capacity to provide for growth in the town.
Simeon Brown earlier this year at the turning of the sod for the new Piarere roundabout. Photo: Jane Thompson.
In a response to resident Glen Bruce, Brown says including on and off ramps at the intersection of Waikato Expressway and Tīrau Road is “out of scope” of the Cambridge to Piarere project the National Coalition government has included in its roads of significance project.
Drivers wanting to go north from that exit can drive 3.5kms south to Hydro Road, change direction and travel back, he said.
“It was determined during the design and planning phases that a northbound on-ramp would not be included. The main reason for that was the existing interchange at Tīrau Road was specifically designed so that the expressway would not be used for short trips, such as motorists entering the expressway at the southern interchange and exiting it at the SH1 B interchange and such a proposal would undermine the intent of this arrangement.”
Giving Bruce a glimmer of hope, Brown said he had passed on his correspondence to the project team for consideration.
The News first raised the on off ramps as a solution to Cambridge’s growing traffic problem more than two years ago.
Then we argued the logic behind the proposal to add on and off ramps to was clear and demanded investigation.
Taupō MP Louise Upston, a regular user of the Waikato Expressway between her Karāpiro home and the rest of her electorate, with Transport Minister Simeon Brown earlier this year at the turning of the sod for the new Piarere roundabout. Photo: Jane Thompson.
Bruce said he was annoyed when the New Zealand Transport Agency suggested modelling showed few cars would use the ramps, so he sought information from Waipā District Council, which treated his questions as a Local Government Official Information Act request.
Transportation manager Bryan Hudson responded saying the traffic model for an average working day showed 190 cars would enter the Expressway from Tīrau Road and head north between 7 and 9am, 214 between 11-1pm and 371 between 4-6pm.
Modelling showed 90 vehicles would leave the Expressway and go into Tīrau Road between 7 and 9am, 225 between 11 and 1pm and 294 between 4-6pm.
Meanwhile motorists and freight are now using a new roundabout at the SH1/SH29 intersection at Piarere.
Two temporary approaches are being used for the more than 2500 heavy commercial vehicles and 25,000 cars that travel through the pinch point every day.
The roundabout has been strategically designed to connect into the four-laned Waikato Expressway section between Cambridge and Piarere.
The sun rises on day one of the work on the new Piarere roundabout in January with politicians ready with their shovels to turn the first sod. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
