Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is extending the consultation for proposed new speed limits and safety improvements for State Highway 2 (SH2) in Wairarapa by three weeks, to ensure that everyone in the community has the ability to make a submission.

The consultation was due to close on Friday 27 August 2021, but people will now have until Sunday 19 September 2021 to have their say on the proposed speed changes and safety infrastructure improvements for SH2 between Masterton and Featherston.

The consultation has been widely advertised and people have been able to make submissions via several different channels, including online, email and post. Printed consultation booklets with submission forms have been available at council offices and libraries.

However, a distribution error has meant that the printed consultation booklets were not delivered to letterboxes in some parts of the community as planned.

“Waka Kotahi is pleased with the level of engagement and the number of submissions we’ve received so far, but it’s important to us that everyone has the opportunity to have their say,” Director of Regional Relationships Emma Speight says.

“As we are at Alert Level 4, we are currently unable to print more booklets and have them delivered to the addresses that have not received them. Therefore, we are encouraging everyone who may have been waiting on the booklets to be delivered to now make their submission online or via email.

“We also know that the speed review may not be top of mind under the current circumstances, so we’re hoping that extending the consultation period will give people who haven’t already submitted a chance to provide more considered feedback that will help us finalise our decisions.

“If the alert level changes with reasonable time left in the consultation period, we will look to reprint the booklets and have them redistributed to those letterboxes that haven’t received them.”

Waka Kotahi will be increasing promotion of the consultation online to ensure that it reaches as many people as possible.

The extension of the consultation period is not expected to impact on the timeframes for construction of the safety infrastructure improvements, which is still subject to funding, or on any possible speed limit changes.

People who have not yet had their say on the SH2 Wairarapa improvements and wish to do so, should visit the project page.

SH2 Wairarapa highway improvements project page

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