Signage warns of worn seal in need of repair
If you’ve driven on any of Southland’s main highways lately, you may have eased up on the gas a bit more than usual.
The NZ Transport Agency has put up bright orange ‘‘slippery when wet’’ signs at 44 sites in the province where the road’s seal is in a bad state of repair.
The agency says the number of sites needing to be resurfaced in Southland is normal for a network of the size of Southland.
The speed limit on State Highway 1 north of Pukerau has been dropped to 70kmh until the road is completely rebuilt later this year. But is it rain on the road, or the road surface that motorists need to be wary of?
Both, according to agency maintenance contract manager Josh Webb.
‘‘At times, due to weather and wear, the surface can lose its grip, become flushed or too smooth and require remedial treatments between total reseal periods.’’
He said the agency completes an annual skid resistance report which involves field inspection and assessing each site.
The report provides a nationally consistent and proactive approach to the management of skid resistance on the state highway network to protect road users. ‘‘Where the time to physically carry out maintenance to increase skid resistance exceeds six weeks, signage is installed to alert road users to slow down and take more care in wet conditions.’’
All areas identified as needing skid resistance treatment will be treated this coming spring/summer season, as well as some sites which are more discretionary.
Treatment will be completed through a mixture of water-cutting the surface – now under way on some sites – and resurfacing both chip seal and asphalt will start in October when temperatures are warmer.
The budget for the work is included in the annual maintenance contract.
Water-cutting is now under way, budgeted at $376,000 including signage, resurfacing scrim sites, both asphalt and chip seal, will cost $827,000, and a further $3.9 million will be spent on chip sealing and asphalt annual renewals.