Installation of innovative electronic speed signs will start this week to improve safety at two Northland intersections with high crash rates.

The signs will be installed where Mangapai Road intersects State Highway 1 at Oakleigh and where Shoemaker Road crosses SH1 at Waipu.

When a vehicle enters the Intersection Speed Zone to cross or turn on to or off the highway, the electronic signs will temporarily reduce the legal speed limit on the highway from 100kph to 60kph. The reduced speed limit will make previously high risk manoeuvres safer and easier for turning vehicles.

The NZ Transport Agency’s Acting Director of Safety and Environment Lisa Rossiter says that Intersection Speed Zones are a simple, relatively quick safety improvement which have proven effective here and overseas.

“These intersections are at locations that have a high risk of serious crashes involving turning traffic. By slowing down the oncoming traffic, Intersection Speed Zones will help prevent these crashes and reduce the risk of someone being killed or seriously injured if a crash does happen.”

Intersection Speed Zones are sometimes called rural intersection activated warning signs or RIAWS. There are already 13 operating on state highways around the country and in June the Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter announced that another 10 would be installed in Northland, Waikato, Canterbury and Otago.

This work is part of the government’s $22.5m Boost Safety Programme which includes a range of low-cost safety improvements, like rumble strips and better signage, to make 30 regional state highways safer.

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