Media statement | 23 May 2006

Life-saving wire rope median barrier wins NZ Road Safety Innovation and Achievement Award

A 700m wire rope median barrier which has prevented several serious head-on crashes on Centennial Highway has won the road engineering category of the annual New Zealand Road Safety Innovation and Achievement Awards.

The Coast Road Median Barrier Project has made a narrow coastal section of State Highway 1 north of Wellington a much safer road, and achieved a world first in road safety engineering.

Two fatal head-on crashes occurred on the stretch of Centennial Highway in 2004. Transit New Zealand responded quickly and together with companies MWH NZ Ltd and Road Services Ltd investigated, designed and constructed the median barrier in just three months. A third fatal crash occurred whilst designing the median barrier. No crashes have occurred since the barrier was installed in December 2004.

“There were several difficult issues to overcome when designing the median barrier, including the width of the road, the fact that the highway is two-lane, and that it had to be able to be dismantled quickly to allow access for emergency services when needed, ” says Michael Gross, judging panel member for the awards.

Transit also installed video cameras to monitor driver behaviour before, during and after installation of the barrier. They have recorded ten incidents, four of which could potentially have resulted in serious head-on collisions had the barrier not be installed.

“Twelve months after the installation of the wire rope median barrier there have been no reported injury crashes on the coast road,” says Mr Gross.

Driver behaviour and confidence has also improved. The surveillance footage shows drivers are now positioning themselves more centrally in the lane, giving more separation between opposing vehicles.

The success of the median barrier has been recognised by the Land Transport New Zealand Board which has recently approved $15.2 million in funding for the design and construction of a median barrier along the full length of the coastal section of Centennial Highway.

“The judges thought that this was an innovative and successful project which has almost certainly saved lives. It presented a number of design challenges which had not been confronted anywhere else in the world. And what’s more, the road stayed open during the construction phase so people’s travel plans were not overly disrupted.”

For more information:

Andy Knackstedt
Media Manager
Land Transport New Zealand
Ph: 04 931 8829 or 0212 763 222

Background information on the awards

The Road Safety Innovation and Achievement Awards programme is funded by the Road Safety Trust and administered by Land Transport New Zealand. The awards organising committee includes representatives from the New Zealand Automobile Association, the AA Driver Education Foundation, New Zealand Police, ACC and Land Transport New Zealand.

There are five categories, plus the Premier award:

• Road Safety Education Award
• Road Safety Community Award
• Road Safety in Organisations Award
• Road Safety Vehicle Based Award
• Road Safety Road-engineering Award

All entries in the were evaluated by a three member expert judging panel comprised of Michael Gross, Dr Carolyn Cogan, Director of the Safe Communities Foundation of New Zealand, and Suzanne Sinclair, chair of the Road Safety Trust.