Aerial view of Shands and Blakes Road upgrade (photo: Selwyn District Council)
Selwyn District Council has improved safety at the Blakes Road and Shands Road intersection by installing a dual lane rural roundabout to reduce the chances of a crash happening and slowing vehicle speeds if a crash was to occur.
The new dual lane rural roundabout and upgraded road layout in Prebbleton is complete.
The safety treatment includes pathways for people walking and cycling to help protect all roads users. The council also undertook other safety measure such as road widening to improve the cross linkage from the township to Shands Road and the new Southern Motorway interchange.
The $4.5 million safe system upgrade attracted 75.5% TEFAR (targeted enhanced funding assistance rate), highlighting the importance to reduce risk at the intersection, which is ranked 10 in the Waka Kotahi top 100 high risk intersections on MegaMaps. There have been one fatal, one serious, nine minor and six non-injury crashes at the Shands Road/ Blakes Road intersection resulting in two DSI (death and serious injury) over the five year period to 2015 with another two deaths in February 2018.
Shands Road is a key arterial route to the motorway and the city, and connects directly to the new Shands and Marshs Road Motorway Interchange. Shands Road traffic also includes that from larger townships like Rolleston which is growing rapidly.
