Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett. Photo: RNZ/ Tom Kitchin
Trucking industry leaders are backing calls for safety improvements to the narrow windy road on the eastern side of Lake Taupō.
But its solution to the problem differs from that of the Taupō District Council.
A freight truck driver received moderate injuries after crashing and rolling his vehicle into the lake on Sunday morning.
The truck was carrying krill oil with milk powder, forcing the road to close for more than 24 hours as the spillage was cleaned up.
In 2002, a pile of logs fell from a truck into the lake, and then in 2009, a driver was killed when a truck plunged 25 metres into the water.
Waka Kotahi said it was well aware of the issues but it was hoping to put funding forward soon.
Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand had previously criticised Waka Kotahi for focusing solely on reducing speeds, rather than maintaining the safety of roads.
The truck crashed on SH1 near Bulli Point on Sunday morning. Photo: Google Maps/Supplied
Chief executive Nick Leggett told Morning Report his group had voiced its concerns for a number of years and wanted to see the stretch of road at Bulli Point widened as it was "extremely tight" for trucks.
There were detours around the other side of the lake, but SH1 was quickest for truck drivers to travel on.
Leggett said Waka Kotahi had said it was aware of the concerns, and would work to improve it overtime.
But Leggett said this was just an example of roads known to be dangerous that were not improved quick enough because of funding constraints.
"This is the sort of piecemeal attitude we get to infrastructure in New Zealand," he told Morning Report.
"A lack of long-term thinking, a lack of safety improvements and we see, sadly, from what happened in the last 24 hours the results of that."
"It's a priority in resources but it's something that does compromise safety on our roads and in my view, leads to more accidents."
Taupō District Council chief executive Gareth Green. Photo: RNZ / Andrew McRae
Taupō District Council chief executive Gareth Green told Morning Report the lake was a taonga and had to be protected from environmental danger.
Teams had been down to the lake to clear it of the krill oil with milk powder as best they could but "large volumes" had fallen into it.
"That will inevitably have an issue on wildlife and fish life and on our water," Green said.
"That lake is a taonga for us so anything going in there is anything too much."
Andrew said they were "really aware" of the potential impact of discharge on the lake.
She said it was upsetting to see discharge in this instance but the harbourmaster and operations team did a "fantastic job" of containing it.
Green didn't believe widening the road was possible given there was rock overhang and "big drops" off to the lake - but there was an alternative route that could be built, bypassing the area altogether.
"It's been out there for about 30 years, 40 years, in the plans and obviously things only get more expensive as time goes on."
Green couldn't give a number but said it would be a "big bill". He said it was worth it, given the importance of Lake Taupō.
"It's our freshwater taonga. It provides water all through the Waikato into Auckland so protecting that water quality and that lake is of utmost importance nationally and therefore for us, is a real priority.
"All we are asking for is for that to be investigated, pulled up the priority list and put into the plans."
Green told Morning Report not only are more people dying on that stretch of road, but there would be an "environmental disaster".
Waka Kotahi said it had been "complex" and "challenging" to find solutions.
Waikato regional system design manager Jess Andrew said it was "incredibly aware of the risks and the challenges" presented by the piece of road.
Waka Kotahi had been working with the local council, stakeholders and tangata whenua for a number of years to develop long and short term solutions.
Andrew said it was a "very challenging and complex section of road" both for people navigating it, but also to provide solutions for "given that it's between a cliff and the lake itself".
As a result she said work had been "slower moving", but they were looking to put forward for funding soon.
