We want everyone who uses our roads to get home safely. To prevent people from being killed or seriously injured on our roads, we want to make sure the speed limits on SH2 between Ngauranga and Featherston are safe. We are also investigating physical safety improvements in this area.
During September and October 2021, we sought feedback on the current speeds on SH2 between Ngauranga and Featherston. This feedback will help us determine if a speed limit change will improve safety.
Feedback closed on 1 November 2021. However, you can still view what others had to say on our interactive map.
State Highway 2 is an important, busy road that carries large volumes of people and products every day, connecting Wellington and the Hutt Valley to Wairarapa and beyond.
In the last 10 years (2011-2020 – Crash Analysis System data), there have been 2313 crashes along this corridor. These crashes killed 15 people and left 149 people seriously injured. In 2020, there were 4 people killed, the highest number in the past 10 years.
We need to make changes so that everyone can get around our region safely. Because of this, we’re reviewing speeds and investigating physical safety improvements on SH2 between Ngauranga and Featherston.
We’re at the feasibility design stage for proposed safety improvements to 14 intersections between Ngauranga and Upper Hutt, and some further sites between Twin Lakes Road at the Upper Hutt side of the Remutaka Hill road to Rennall Street in Featherston. We’re still working through the details and possible options, and we’ll come back to you before we make any final decisions.
Improving safety on New Zealand roads is a priority for Waka Kotahi. New Zealand’s road safety strategy, Road to Zero 2020-2030, tells us what the country needs to do to make our roads safer. It also sets us on a path to achieve Vision Zero, where no one is killed or seriously injured on our roads. Road to Zero’s initial target is to reduce deaths and serious injuries on New Zealand’s roads, streets, cycleways and footpaths by 40 percent over the next 10 years. Reaching that target would mean reducing the number of people killed on our roads each year to 227, and seriously injured to 1,680 by 2030.
There are five key focus areas under Road to Zero: Infrastructure improvements and speed management, vehicle safety, work-related road safety, road user choices and system management.
The Safe System approach seeks to create a safe and forgiving road system that makes the safety of people a priority. It does this through four guiding principles: