Road improvement study

Press, 21 May 1982, Page 5

Road improvement study

Christchurch City Council engineers are looking at ways of improving an Addington intersection to overcome its accident record and visibility problems. A Transport Board bus route has • already been diverted from the Simeon-Brougham-Collins Streets intersection because of problems in getting across, the busy Brougham Street Expressway, which is now part of the State highway system. Several proposals were being considered, the council’s traffic engineer, Mr M. L. Gadd, has said. But none would be chosen for reporting to the council until there had been talks with the neighbourhood committee,

the Addington School, and the Ministry of Works and Development, which now is responsible for the Brougham Street route. Some residents of the area have asked for traffic signals at the intersection. Another proposal being studied is extension of the Brougham Street median strip across the intersection to keep through traffic from crossing. Mr Gadd said that such a -solution could include offset median crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, and one might be possible opposite the Addington School gate. One example of such a crossing is opposite the Linwood Park entrance in Aidwins Road.

In a letter to “The Press,” Mrs N. E. Becker, of Hillier Street, said that the district would be further fragmented by some of the motorway improvements suggested. She said that an extended median strip from Barrington to Selwyn Streets would allow traffic to speed unimpeded along that section of the expressway. Traffic signals should be installed and phased, as they are in the one-way systems, from Barrington to Opawa, she said. i “This would serve the dual purpose of even, speed-con-trolled traffic flow while allowing local humanity to move around their district in relative safety,” Mrs Becker said.