It will make suburban roads more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists in Waikanae and Peka Peka. It will add to vehicle emissions and noise.

Up to 2,300 vehicles, a day will be funnelled onto local roads. These are residential streets that have not been designed for large numbers of extra vehicles. It will particularly affect residents along Te Moana Road, Rauparaha Street,  Huiawa St, Field Way, William Street, Rutherford Drive, Paetawa Road and Peka Peka Road.

Vehicles including trucks heading to businesses in Te Horo and
Peka Peka such as Ruth Pretty Catering, Harrisons Garden Centre,
Marys CatVilla and Sudbury’s Wedding Venue will also use these roads. Many of these visitors come from further south and will, therefore,
take the closest off-ramp at Waikanae.

Hemi Street, Sylvan Avenue, Belvedere Avenue, Ngarara Road,
Park Avenue and Rimu Street will also become far busier as people
avoid the Waikanae township with traffic lights and reduced
speed limits, to access the Waikanae interchange.

The Transport Agency’s decision means that once the expressway has been completed, there will be no interchange, slip road or ramp for 16 km between the Waikanae exit and Otaki. The existing households and the new housing developments in Waikanae North, Peka Peka, Peka Peka Beach, Te Horo and Te Horo Beach will be cut off from the Kapiti Expressway.

Throughout the years of consultation, residents in Kapiti were promised better access. It has now become clear that this was an empty promise and unless this is reversed, we will have to live with this flawed decision for decades.

The costs to connect at Peka Peka are seriously overstated in the NZTA business case. The costs to the ratepayers of using local roads have not been considered, and the value for money from leaving this traffic on the expressway is likely to significantly exceed the value gained by attempting to spill the traffic on local roads.

Increased traffic, especially by trucks and visitors going to Waikanae North, Peka Peka and Te Horo, will mean more costly road maintenance. In addition, turning SH1 into a local road means that all maintenance costs will be paid by Kapiti Coast District Council and that means you, the ratepayer.