TraFix Water Cable Barrier a superior option to cones
The ever-increasing demand for housing in Auckland continues to see new housing subdivisions pop up around the city’s fringes. And with new residential developments comes the need for the right infrastructure – a constant focus for Auckland Transport who works closely with the Council to ensure the transport network supports growth.
One such example is Hingaia Road, the main route through Karaka to Kingseat (and then onto Clarks Beach and Waiuku) which, as a single lane road, was becoming unsafe due to the increased traffic pressures brought on by the numerous new housing developments in the area with a further concern being the location of the current pedestrian crossing too far from Hingaia Road Peninsula School.
With their evaluation complete, a tender for the work was put out by Auckland Transport (AT) in August 2018 to widen the road from one to two lanes each way, with the addition of separate cycle and footpaths, and the signalisation of the intersection with Kuhanui Drive /Hingaia Road – a location right near the school.
Higgins Contractors were awarded the contract by AT in August 2018 but had no agreed start date as AT had to work through contracts on the same road reserve. “Once these contracts had ended AT wanted us to mobilise asap,” says Luke Matthews, Projects Engineer for Higgins Contractors. ”We had very little notice given to proceed with the road widening work which meant getting the traffic management in place as quickly as possible to ensure everyone’s safety - the public and our teams. I spoke to Jeff Berriman, North Island Hire Manager at CSP, to get about 700 of their MASH TL-2 TrafFix Water Cable Barriers and the MASH SLED Crash Cushions on-site so our teams could work safely.”
With a set road closure arranged for a weekend in April the Higgins team were under pressure to get the 700 MASH TL-2 TrafFix Water Cable Barrier units and MASH SLED Crash Cushions in place over the weekend and ready for the Monday morning commuter and school traffic. “It was a tight timeframe,” adds Luke. “Jeff had the barriers ready to unload. I don’t think we even started unloading them until 2.30am. But thanks to the efforts of everyone we had the road opened for Monday morning traffic.”
Luke says that strictly speaking, they didn't need to use TL-2 barriers as under current regulations cones would suffice. “However we have some quite deep cuts along the road so we decided to use CSP’s TL-2 system,” he says. “It’s so much safer for everyone to have the barrier there to protect them – which we are very happy about.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with Luke and the Higgins team to get this area set up and safe for the work ahead,” says Jeff.