Stillwater road ‘falling down cliff face’
Stillwater residents are sick of their main road being neglected. A recurring pothole on Duck Creek Rd, and a road closure due to a slip, are just two of the problems residents say authorities aren’t taking seriously.
North Auckland residents have raised a number of concerns to Auckland Transport (AT) and are disappointed with the lack of work being done to permanently fix them.
Secretary of the Stillwater Ratepayers and Residents Association John Davies said, based on a community survey, there are issues with the speed limit, a recurring pothole and the poor quality of the road.
He also mentioned a slip which has resulted in the road barrier and a bit of the road falling down the cliff face.
‘‘One side of the road has been blocked off for around two months. AT said they will not fix it till the next financial year. Residents are concerned the road will continue to fall away and they will get stuck on either side. We have no bus service, no shops and everyone needs to drive in and out so the road is absolutely vital.’’
Davies mentioned the speed limit was too high for the conditions of the road.
‘‘Duck Creek Road is a very narrow and windy road, and has a speed limit of 80km which includes corners.’’
Auckland Transport’s Mark Hannan said there is no immediate plans to change the speed limits.
‘‘The speed limit of 80kmh is correctly set under the current speed limits rule. Potentially, under the new speed management guide and the revised speed limits rule, it will qualify for a reduction to 60km/h. This road has a lowmedium crash risk so is not likely to be an early priority for change,’’ he said.
In the survey Davies received feedback on the conditions of the road and how horrible it is.
‘‘We tend to wonder what AT is doing, they seem to do work on areas of the road that don’t need work.There has been a recurring pothole which keeps coming up and is a hazard for drivers, they need to get an engineer to come and have a look at it to see what the real issue is under the road so it can be permanently fixed.
‘‘AT needs to do something more than what they are doing, the area is only going to grow and we have some weighty development behind us.’’