Council supports Renwick bypass compromise

Wairau Awatere councillor Cynthia Brooks says it was gratifying to hear that local trucking companies were already imposing a 30km speed limit on their vehicles moving through Renwick along Boyce and Anglesea streets.

Before the Kaikoura earthquake closed SH1, about 50 trucks passed the Renwick township each day but that had risen to 800 heavy vehicles a day, prompting a public meeting to discuss road safety and noise issues.

Rather than shut streets altogether, the community opted for compromise; a heavy truck curfew on the two most affected residential streets so they were not used as a shortcut between the state highways during night-time hours.

Marlborough District Council today agreed this arrangement should be trialled until the end of February when it would be reviewed before the beginning of the district’s grape harvest.

Councillors were told that other solutions, including reduced speed limits on the state highways through Renwick, would also be investigated.

With school holidays about to begin and thousands of Scouts due to arrive in Renwick for the national jamboree, it was agreed the best option would be to allow heavy vehicles to continue to use the two streets in daytime to move between SH6 and SH63 while avoiding the main street of the township. But from 7pm to 7am the trucks would avoid the shortcut through the residential area.

Signage would be put in place very soon.

But Councillor Brooks said she’d been told that already local truckies are reducing their speeds to a maximum 30kms on Anglesea and Boyce streets.

“There is a great deal of goodwill and an understanding that compromise is needed,” she said.

Leaflets would be prepared for the Cook Strait ferries so that national transport operators would be aware of the bypass arrangements.

ENDS.

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