Anger as roadworks wrap up
As the New Zealand Transport Agency reaches its ‘‘financial limits’’, it is putting the brakes on some work along the alternative State Highway 1 route between Picton and Canterbury, angering many residents living along its well-used path.
‘‘People up here are really pissed,’’ said Lake Rotoiti farmer Phil Borlase on Saturday as he pointed out stretches of partially completed work that look likely to be left unfinished this summer.
One 1.4km rough section of road along SH63, near the KorereTophouse Rd turnoff, runs by Phil’s property.
It includes a culvert that is to be extended.
The large concrete extension pipe sits beside the road, ready to be lowered into place.
But now the plug has been pulled on the job and the pumps have been removed and the extension pipe looks likely to remain beside the road.
‘‘It’s just going to sit there.’’
Phil said he believed about two days’ work remained to prepare the site for the extension and was annoyed the project had been put on hold so close to completion.
If the pipe was put into place before remediation, the contractors would not need to access his property again, Phil said.
However, ‘‘if they come back, they’re not doing it on my side of the fence,’’ he added. ‘‘I’ve told them they’ve got an opportunity to do it – do it.’’
As well as the culvert extension, Phil said other planned work put on hold included shape correction, widening and an overlay on parts of the deteriorated highway.
‘‘The road through here, they’ve had people potholing regularly just to maintain it,’’ he said.
‘‘The road is ... disastrous; it’s as rough as guts. You wanna come down there in a truck, you get chucked around; it’s bloody terrible.’’
Volunteer firefighter Russell Ferens agreed. ‘‘The fire appliance is bounced all over the place.’’
Ferens said he was worried about the coming winter, fearing an increase in crashes.
‘‘The road just came apart last winter,’’ he said. ‘‘We were up there regularly for car accidents.’’
An area of particular concern to Ferens, Phil and many other people in the community was a narrow piece of road with a high camber over a culvert, a few hundred metres from the KorereTophouse Rd turnoff.
Large vehicles had to move to the centre of the road to fit while trucks with trailers were particularly vulnerable to the high camber.
‘‘The rear axel actually comes off the road,’’ Ferens said.
Phil called the spot ‘‘an accident waiting to happen’’. He said the community had an assurance work on the site would be completed before Christmas, then it was pushed back to Februaryearly March.
Lakes-Murchison Ward councillor Stuart Bryant said the council wanted the whole 1.4km section finished.
‘‘We’re lobbying NZTA and NCTIR [North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery],’’ Bryant said.
‘‘It is a little bit surprising that they started these projects and then realised ‘we haven’t got enough funding’, it seems odd.’’
On the almost-complete culvert extension outside Phil’s property, Bryant said he would expect that to be finished at least.
NZTA earthquake recovery manger Tim Crow said all planned work would be completed, while some ‘‘extra work’’ at sites with a ‘‘lower safety risk’’ would be finished after winter, adding that included ‘‘Mr Borlase’s culvert’’.
No major works were being postponed, Crow said.