Hayes Paddock

The Y-intersection of Plunket Terrace and Jellicoe Drive has safety and accessibility issues including U-turns at the intersection, poor visibility of pedestrians, and high entry speeds into Plunket Terrace. The changes we want to make will improve safety for everyone visiting or travelling through this popular part of our city. 

The raised crossings in this project will be designed with an easier gradient for vehicles to travel across. Raised crossings will create a calmer environment that gives everyone time to avoid a crash, or reduces the harm to people when a crash does happen. The number and severity of crashes in Hamilton has dropped significantly in places where we have installed raised safety platforms. 

Raised crossings are used where we need to give people who are walking, scooting, biking or catching the bus a safe place to cross the street. Removing barriers to using these modes of transport will enable us to reduce our city’s emissions from transport. 

Raised crossings also provide a level pathway from one side of the street to the other, which means people don’t have to step down in the street. This is particularly important for mobility scooters and wheelchair users. 

The budget for this project is $1.2 million and it is 100% funded by the Climate Emergency Response Fund, which is administered by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi. There is no cost to Council. 

In New Zealand, the Emissions Trading Scheme puts a price on emissions by charging certain sectors of the economy for the greenhouse gases they emit. Some of that money collected by central government was used to set up the Climate Emergency Response Fund to use on small upgrades to help reduce transport emissions across the country. 

We have been working with the community to determine the best parking configuration. The safety improvements require some loss of on-street parking, but there will be three new mobility car parks, two within the parking area near Wellington Street Beach, and one outside Hayes Common. We will also install bike parking outside the cafe. 

Yes. Connectivity to neighbouring parks is a feature of this project. It will link walkways and cycleways to provide better transport choices that are accessible to everyone. This is an opportunity to enhance this public space, to make safety improvements to the intersection for residents and visitors to Hayes Paddock. We want to make this a safe place for everyone – people who walk, people who cycle, people who have mobility issues and people using vehicles. 

No. The intersection changes we are making will allow traffic to flow easily and safely around the neighbourhood while improving safety for people walking, biking and scootering around Hayes Common and Hayes Paddock. 

Our project manager is working with the contractor to agree on a planned scope of work, to ensure timelines are met. We will inform the community if there are delays in project completion. This project will start in April 2024 and be completed before July 2024. 

We will use the Antenno app to inform people when the project is about to start, and if there are any significant changes to the project which need to be shared with the community. Watch this project page for updates. People can also contact the council via phone on 07 838 6699 or email info@hcc.govt.nz

The Council ran an extensive engagement programme in 2023 involving an online survey, distributed brochures and community meetings. The survey was followed up with a drop-in session at Hayes Common Cafe, and two informal pop-up conversation meetings by the bus stop at Hayes Paddock, in June 2023. There were also focus group meetings, to gather further feedback on the proposed changes, also held in June 2023.   

There were initially 29 projects in the Transport Choices programme. The projects were programmed to be constructed in two stages. Hayes Paddock was programmed into stage two. In late 2023 there was a change in Government. The new transport minister wrote to councils and advised that projects which did not have funding confirmed, would not move to construction phase. That included the Hayes Paddock Project. 

In March 2024, Council’s Infrastructure and Transport committee agreed to reallocate funding from an approved project to the Hayes Paddock project. NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi confirmed the reallocation of funding which meant the project could proceed to construction phase.