Ashburton gridlock pushes truckies to the limit

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

Severe traffic congestion is holding up truckies in Ashburton, forcing drivers to breach their legal driving hours, an industry head says.

Transporting New Zealand industry adviser Jim Crouchley says drivers are waiting up to 45 minutes in gridlock to get through the Canterbury town.

The congestion delays put pressure on drivers and endangered livestock, he said.

Crouchley told the Ashburton District Road Safety Co-ordinating Committee this week that drivers were reporting regular traffic queues, particularly on Fridays and holiday weekends, which was pushing compliance limits.

“Dunedin-based operators can usually make the trip to Christchurch within their five-and-a-half hours of legal driving time to meet deadlines, but are now finding themselves in breach of law with waiting times of up to 45 minutes to get through the Ashburton traffic on many occasions.”

There were also potential animal welfare issues through heat stress on animals in a slow-moving crate, particularly in the summer months, he said.

Crouchley pointed the finger at the Melcombe St viaduct, and to a lesser extent Compton’s crossing, for exacerbating the already lengthy queues.

Truck drivers saw a large number of motorists accessing State Highway 1 via the viaduct and being let in by other “courteous road users”.

This left truck drivers frustrated as they “can only watch as the queue gets longer and slower”, he said.

He said it has been suggested the Melcombe St viaduct be blocked by traffic management during peak times – until Ashburton’s second bridge was completed.

And it was not just those in the transport industry voicing concerns, with emergency services also speaking about the congestion.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand Mid-South Canterbury community readiness and recovery adviser Jesse Shearer told the meeting anecdotal evidence showed local fire brigades shared the congestion concerns and it affected their ability to attend callouts.

The viaduct was a point of conjecture during the $10 million Tinwald Corridor upgrade.

The project centred around installing traffic signals at the SH1/Lagmhor Road/Agnes St intersection.

During the design phase, it was proposed to restrict Melcombe St to left out only but a swathe of community feedback convinced the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to retain its two-way access.

At the time NZTA director regional relationships James Caygill said it would retain the access “with monitoring to maintain that works”.

Several speed reduction measures were put in place along Melcombe St - three separators on either side of slightly raised platforms – to deter people from using Melcombe St to jump the queues (referred to as rat running) on SH1.

According to truckies, it wasn't working and needed to be revisited.

NZTA South and Mid Canterbury senior network manager Scott McKenzie said in terms of big-picture congestion around Ashburton, “there are limited opportunities to improve traffic flow”.

“The corridor is essentially operating at capacity and this is more obvious at peak times or where other works are under way.

"Given the residential and commercial development immediately adjacent to the highway there is limited scope to increase capacity.”

NZTA monitored the traffic signals along SH1 through Ashburton and Tinwald and made small changes to the timing as necessary to improve traffic flow where possible, he said.

“We are aware some people use Melcombe St as an alternative route onto SH1.

“It is not possible to block a local intersection temporarily unless there is a key safety reason for doing so.”

He said in theory the second bridge would “change the pattern for local road users who will then have a choice of bridges to get over the Ashburton River”.