Road needs fixing

Living in Mokau for the last 30 years, and on the top of the Waitaanga saddle for 16 years before that, I have been very interested in all the things associated with Mt Messenger and the highway north over time.

My mother first drove over Mt Messenger in the winter of 1926 to help set up a branch of WDFF in Ahititi. She was told to take a pair of gumboots as she may have to push the car up the odd steep muddy spot on Mt Messenger.

Fifty years ago, when I first drove over it, there were two signs at the top to tell down traffic to give way. So it has certainly improved since then.

I will agree with Jim Tucker with all the improvements that he listed. They all need doing. But that’s been the problem: a lot of money spent looking at things but very little work done.

Regarding the Bexley corners in the gorge, I

As an old resident of Waitaanga once told me, if you fix the worst corner on any road to stop accidents, you only make the next bad corner the problem one. Trevor Walshaw

would think the insurance companies have paid out more money than it would take to fix the road.

My concern with the mountain is, once the bottom of any of that steep country is disturbed there will be more slips over the road than there are now. As an old resident of Waitaanga once told me, if you fix the worst corner on any road to stop accidents, you only make the next bad corner the problem one.

Trevor Walshaw, Mokau