Hamilton City Council has adopted a Vision Zero target of ending deaths and serious injuries on our city’s roads. This means we will design and deliver infrastructure that recognises humans can make mistakes on the road, but they should not pay for it with a life.

To help achieve this target, the Council are upgrading the Anglesea St and Bryce St intersection next to the Hamilton Transport Centre with works starting at the end of January.

This intersection is one of the busiest in Hamilton and sees up to 35000 vehicle movements, 5000 pedestrian movements and approximately 1000 bus movements every day.

City Transportation Manager Jason Harrison says in the last five years there have been 23 crashes at this intersection (ranging from non-injury to serious injury), highlighting the importance of these planned safety improvements.

“The number of deaths and serious injuries will decrease when vehicles travel at the speeds appropriate to the conditions. Our wish is for everyone to take personal responsibility for themselves and those around them when moving from here to there, from now into the future.

“Upgraded infrastructure like the Anglesea St and Bryce St intersection can help guide these behaviours to get people home safe,” says Mr Harrison.

New safety features at the Anglesea St and Bryce St intersection will include a raised platform across the intersection to lower speeds and changing the traffic signal phasing to prioritise the safety of pedestrians.

Base Civil Construction who have been contracted by the Council to complete the works need to close the full intersection for three weeks from 28 January 2020, after the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. While the intersection is closed, Base Civil will locate and work around a number of underground services, and rebuild the foundations of the road to create a longer lasting and more durable intersection.

It will be much safer to undertake these works with the intersection closed, and will mean the team can work longer hours, and complete the works sooner.

Access to all businesses in the area will always be maintained, while pedestrian and cycling access around the outskirts of the work site will also be maintained. The intersection will re-open and then be under traffic management until the end of March 2020 (weather dependent).

This work is supported and co-funded by the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, which as part of the Safe Network Programme is investing $1.4 billion over three years to achieve significant and sustained reductions in deaths and serious injuries on state highways and local roads across New Zealand.

The Anglesea St and Bryce St intersection safety improvements project is the first in the Waikato to be approved through the Transport Agency’s Safe Network Programme using guidance from the Standard Safety Intervention Toolkit and streamlined investment pathway.

For more on this project visit hamilton.govt.nz/anglesea-bryce

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