Roundabout for Barry Avenue, Cromwell

Plans are underway to construct a new roundabout at the Barry Ave, Gair Ave and Inniscort Street intersection commencing in mid October.



Council’s Roading Engineer Peter Cuthbertson said “This roundabout will be a safety improvement and remove the confusion caused by the tee intersections of Gair Ave and Inniscort Street being askew.”



New Zealand Transport Agency crash data confirms there have been crashes in this area and feedback from residents indicate that there are frequent near-misses. These issues were raised within the community and brought to the attention of the Cromwell Community Board.



Work is expected to take a month to complete and be ready before the summer holiday period gets underway. There will be some disruption to traffic during the construction phase however no detours are anticipated.



Mr Cuthbertson said this roundabout will be unique to Central Otago in that it’s oval. This design gives the best fit with the current intersection layout and provides the best solution in terms of traffic movement.



Because a high number of young people use the intersection due to the proximity of local schools, pedestrian and cyclist safety features were considered and have been designed in. Pedestrian refuges have been incorporated into the surrounding splitter islands to increase safety when crossing the road. Cyclists can choose to leave the carriageway prior to the roundabout and make their way around the footpath which will be marked to show shared access.



Mr Cuthbertson said feedback during the consultation period had been very positive with the public keen to see improvements to the intersection as soon as possible.