Better Field Days Access and a Sealed Road for Residents

Work underway on Awakino Point East Road will spare the Northland Field Days this year’s traffic hassles and is also a tribute to the efforts of residents who successfully worked with Kaipara District Council to have their road sealed beyond the Field Days entrance.

When the Field Days moved to their new permanent site on Awakino Point East Road traffic delays, compounded by the two lane road from State Highway 14 to the entrance, led to The New Zealand Transport Agency insisting on improved traffic management for future events.

To improve traffic flow and safety Kaipara District Council has let a contract to HEB Construction Limited which includes widening and sealing 600 meters of Awakino Point East Road to allow three lanes of traffic – two in and one out when traffic is arriving and the reverse when most is leaving. The Field Days’ significance was recognised by all Northland councils as regionally important and allowed this work to be funded from ‘R Funds’, derived from petrol tax and used for regionally important works.

Working collaboratively with the New Zealand Transport Agency has also enabled improvements on State Highway 14 which will be widened for 360 metres eastwards from the Awakino Point Road East Road intersection, allowing the creation of a left turning bay for traffic heading to the Field Days.

At the same time a further 1.3 kilometres beyond the Field Days entrance is being upgraded and sealed as the result of an initiative by 19 Awakino Point Road East Road property owners who have joined together as a community and contributed the $160,000 local share of the cost.

They approached the Council which included the work in the same tender as the Field Days access for cost effectiveness and successfully lobbied the Transport Agency for subsidy on the landowners’ behalf.

All works are expected to be completed before the 2009 Northland Field Days on 26, 27 and 28 February.

West Coast/Central Councillor Julie Geange, who has worked closely with the landowners and Field Days organisers, is rapt.

"I think it is amazing that a community can come together with a common goal, not expecting a hand-out, but asking for help. And for that goal to be achieved in less than six months,” she says.

“I am so happy to have been part of this and take my hat off to everyone involved"
Northland Field Days Incorporated president David Phillips has welcomed the upgrade, saying, “it has given us an opportunity to make improvements to the site entrance and will provide our exhibitors and visitors with better access, especially as the work should be completed in plenty of time before the next Field Days.”

Awakino Point East Road resident Don Thomas says after some doubts over the subsidy the announcement of its availability has provided an early Christmas present.

“Obviously the Council pushed all the right buttons and the seal will have lots of benefits including less dust and a better road for everyone. It was something that was needed and we had to grasp the opportunity offered.”

Mr Thomas says it is good to see that communities can sit down and work together for their common good.
Caption: Widening the first 600 metres of Awakino Point East Road will allow three lanes of Traffic to the Northland Field Days entrance, helping overcome delays which occurred at this year’s event.