Draft Long Term Plan and the Bypass

The draft Long Term Plan for 2009-2019 has progressed to the stage of being available for public consultation. Submissions are open to 24 April 2009.

The question of a bypass for Stratford is an issue that regularly gets mentioned. Here are some facts:

The section of road known as Broadway is State Highway, and therefore under the control and financial responsibility of the NZ Transport Agency. This means taxapayer money and not local ratepayer money pays for the upkeep of the current road.

The potential State Highway 3 bypass of the Stratford commercial area would involve removing the highway designation from Broadway between Fenton and Regan Streets and diverting the state highway traffic to Miranda Street via Fenton and Regan Streets. The new route would have priority at all route intersections and involve the demolition of the recently completed roundabouts. Access to the War Memorial carpark would have to be stopped on Miranda Street and the Portia Street access upgraded. There may also be concerns regarding access to the Fire Station and noise issues for the Public Library.

The intersections of Regan Street/Miranda Street and Miranda Street/Fenton Street would have to be reconfigured, likely to curves as seen in Inglewood. Changing the northern roundabout to a curve would make turning east onto State Highway 43 difficult. The situation would be similar at the southern roundabout turning east down Fenton St to Mitre 10, however there is alternative access back at Hills Road.

The new bypass would require 1.2 kilometres of pavement strengthening. The current Miranda St surface is not designed to take heavy loads all day. The estimated cost of this paving work alone exceeds $1.2 million.

If the bypass deviation was taken through to Seyton Street an additional 500m of pavement strengthening would be required, adding an additional $500,000 to the cost. The Seyton Street/Miranda Street and Seyton/Broadway intersections would also have to be reconfigured.

Any bypass would have to meet an economic justification. The main types of benefit considered in economic evaluations of transport projects are benefits with monetary values derived from the marketplace, eg, vehicle operating costs and the value of work travel time. Other benefits include reductions in accidents.

All economic evaluations conducted to date have concluded that a bypass of Stratford is not economically viable and would not be funded by the New Zealand Transport Agency. Therefore, the total cost of the project would be the responsibility of local ratepayers.

The Council believes that the price tag in the millions is not affordable to local ratepayers. However, if you disagree and are willing to pay, please put in a submission.

As an alternative, if traffic and parking issues does grow to being a major problem in the current shopping area, why not move the shopping area? Plenty of land exists on Miranda St to develop a new shopping mall. This would allow those shops that generate most of their trade from through traffic on the State Highway to remain, whilst local shops that service local customers could redevelop on Miranda St. Food for thought?