Rai Saddle road upgrade cuts all the right corners to achieve its safety goal

Thursday, 3 May 2018

The two-year improvement project at Rai Saddle is drawing to a close.

The road realignment, north-east of Nelson, has reduced the number of corners and added sealed shoulders to make passing safer and easier.

NZTA media manager Andy Knackstedt said the project was 'all about safety'.

In the 10 years up to 2015, there were 25 crashes on Rai Saddle, five of them serious and 11 causing minor injuries.

**Read more:

* Rai saddle upgraded for safety**

The new layout has been designed to increase the safety of the road without sacrificing speed - in fact, the speed limit is set to go up from 65kmh to between 75 and 85kmh.

The number of corners has gone from five to four, and the remaining bends have been eased so that drivers won't have to change speed as quickly or frequently as the old layout required.

An additional safety feature is the dedicated turning bay at the top of the saddle, which will make turning into the forestry road there much safer.

The winding road and changes in speed limits were both identified as key contributors to the high frequency of crashes in the 1.3km section of road.

Knackstedt said the project looked set to finish right on time and within budget.

'They're confirmed to be on track to finish in July.

'As to being under-budget, we won't know fully until the project's finished but there's no reason to think that they won't be.'

The cost of the construction was estimated to be $9.5 million.

The realignment is just one of potentially many projects aimed to increase the safety of the highway between Nelson and Blenheim.

In 10 years, just over 90 people were seriously injured and 20 people died in crashes along the 115km section of SH6 between the two towns.