The highway to pothole hell
While wild weather caused rivers to rise and surface flooding, it also tore into Taranaki’s State Highway 3 yesterday, leaving the already troubled road a scene of potholes and flat tyres.
The damage cost motorists tyres, mags and wages, and one Stratford resident said the state of Taranaki’s roads was so bad it was going to lead to protests.
Sandra Ngatai was heading to New Plymouth Airport at around 6.40am to pick up her daughter Boo when she hit three potholes on SH3 near Tariki, puncturing her car tyre.
Ngatai said initially there were four other cars with punctures in the same spot and three more had ‘‘joined’’ the group after she got caught out.
One of the cars that had pulled over when she arrived was an undercover police vehicle.
Ngatai said someone else had to pick up her daughter from the airport, and they had to have their reunion on the side of the road.
‘‘We’re going to have to start a protest against paying our road user charges. Our cars have to be up to the standard of the road but the road is not up to the standard of our cars. It’s just pathetic.’’
Vivian Neilson was left with blown front and rear left tyres, a broken front mag, and leaking suspension after encountering the SH3 potholes. He also lost a day off work, costing him 12 hours of wages.
The timber machinist said he was driving from Eltham to New Plymouth at just after 5am when he heard an ‘‘almighty bang’’ just before a bridge.
‘‘It felt like two potholes, but when I checked later there were four, there was no way to dodge them and I never even saw them coming.’’
Neilson said the potholes were half a metre to a metre in size.
‘‘You talk to anyone driving between here and New Plymouth, they’re all complaining.
‘‘You’ll see the roading company put some asphalt into it and then trucks will run over it and a day or two later the pothole will be back.’’
Nielson said he’d seen at least eight to 10 cars on the side of the road with punctures.
Doug Peach of Symons trucking company said one of the company’s vans had once again popped two tyres at Eltham and that the area between Stratford and Inglewood was ‘‘littered’’ with potholes.
Police received multiple calls about cars pulling over and changing tyres due to potholes in Tariki and Eltham and have issued a call asking drivers to take care.
Tariki has long been a problem area for potholes and Waka Kotahi has come under heat in recent months over the state of the highway in the region.
In July, plans to fix potholes in the area fell through due to a traffic management plan oversight.
The repairs then took place on August 9, but heavy rain appears to have undone the work.
In an emailed statement, Waka Kotahi urged Taranaki drivers to take care on the region’s roads and avoid unnecessary travel.
It said contractors were working to repair damage caused by the heavy rainfall such as slips, flooding and potholes and, with more severe weather expected, crews would continue to monitor various sites across the region.
It said there were ‘‘a large number of potholes between New Plymouth and Eltham’’. ‘‘Crews are working around the clock to repair the damage and reduce further deterioration of the road during the wet weather, before longer-term repairs can take place.’’
Dillon O’Sullivan said it wasn’t just New Plymouth to Eltham that was bad – the potholes extended all the way to Hāwera.
When he drove past at 6.45am, workers were filling them and then stamping the fill with their feet to compact it, O’Sullivan said.
There were more big holes just before Neill Rd and that was before Eltham. ‘‘Suffice to say, there is not a half-kilometre section without a pothole.’’
O’Sullivan, who said he regularly drives from New Plymouth to Hāwera, said he had complained about the state of the road to the local MP, Steph Lewis, and questioned how much of the region’s road user charges and taxes were being spent on the highway.
He said it was time Waka Kotahi ‘‘stopped the platitudes and did the work’’.