Residents angry at NZTA’s U-turn on SH1
As the NZ 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 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 partly 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.
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 . . .’’
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.