Photo: Jimmy Ellingham/RNZ
Scales that weigh trucks driving over them and smart cameras that read numbers plates are among high-tech pieces of equipment being installed on a busy stretch of highway in the lower North Island.
More than 2000 big trucks a day pass the Ohakea air force base between Bulls and Sanson, 20 minutes from Palmerston North.
It's a busy bit of the road where state highways 1 and 3 combine, and an $11.5 million upgrade is nearing its completion, including a new commercial vehicle safety centre - previously called a weigh station. They're staffed by police.
"What we're doing here is a lot more than just weighing trucks, hence the name shift," said Sean Bridge, NZ Transport Agency's commercial vehicle safety programme manager.
"We obviously still weigh trucks, definitely, but we're putting a lot more technology into the road."
Gareth Howie and Sean Bridge. Photo: Jimmy Ellingham/RNZ
Currently a truck has to stop at the older-style centre when it's operating. The new technology in the road means they may not have to once it opens.
On the road in each direction past Ohakea there will be scales to weigh trucks, checking if they're overweight.
The number plate readers check other issues, such as updated certificates of fitness. If there's a problem, a message pops up on a screen telling the truck to pull in.
Of the 2000 trucks a day, about 3 percent would probably have to come in for a close inspection, Bridge said.
There are 12 centres around New Zealand and Ohakea's will be the fourth to get all this smart technology.
The busiest is on the Bombays south of Auckland.
"I know at our sites, currently, I think even last week we had to pink sticker a truck that had suspension issues, and they were pink stickered off the road and had to get towed out of the site.
"It's case dependent whether it's a ticket for being overweight or whether it's a serious safety issue we're picking up."
The main thing motorists will notice about the new road layout is the roundabout at the increasingly busy intersection with the Ohakea air force base.
The new commercial vehicle safety centre is expected to open early next year. Photo: Jimmy Ellingham/RNZ
Vehicles started using it earlier this year - having previously been directed on temporary roads around the site.
Transport Agency's central region infrastructure delivery manager Gareth Howie said there were only minor works to go on that part of the project.
"The original was just a simple T-intersection junction with a right-turn pocket that came in. It was not safe."
The old intersection was a black spot and with Ohakea now home to the new fleet of poseidon aircraft and increasing numbers of airforce personnel, it couldn't stay that way.
There were about 80 crashes in the decade to 2020.
"We have had some serious crashes around here. That was a key requirement for the roundabout, to improve that safety and improve it for the base as well."
The new commercial vehicle safety centre's expected to be built by October - the new technology then gets installed and was expected to be in use from February.
Inside the new centre building work is continuing, including in the observation room, which will be full of computer screens flashing up information, while windows allow staff to look outside at either the weigh bridge or the inspection area.
The idea was the trucks will drive in, get weighed and then go round in a orderly circle, having other checks before driving off.
All the vital information will pop up on the screens.
Bridge said there were plans to make all the commercial vehicle centres as smart as the Ohakea one.
He said the new centres increased compliance with the rules, and had industry backing because trucks with no problems didn't have to stop.
