‘Atrocious’ seal leaves uneven road
A Gore district councillor has called the state of the seal on one of the town’s busiest streets ‘‘atrocious’’.
Cr Ralph Beale told a Gore District Council meeting this week that people had approach him about the seal on Avon St. He wanted to know when it would be fixed.
Avon St is part of the town’s heavy traffic bypass to the west of the town but Beale said it wasn’t just truck drivers who had approached him about it.
Seal has lifted on many parts of the street, leaving an uneven surface.
Council roading manager Peter Standring said the street had been flagged for a ‘‘complete rehabilitation’’ but that ‘‘wasn’t going to fly’’ with the New Zealand Transport Agency. The street was the council’s responsibility but received funding from the agency to carry out maintenance and repairs, Standring said.
Repairs to the street are not in the council’s resurfacing budget and are now under the council’s repairs budget.
Mayor Tracy Hicks said there had been ‘‘quite a bit of public interest’’ in the seal on Avon St.
Yesterday, Standring said the seal had broken up because of age and the heavy traffic was also playing a part.
The council’s most recent traffic count was on Avon St in 2013, when there were 1700 vehicles a day travelling on Avon St, of which 21 per cent were heavy vehicles.
‘‘I’m not sure that we’re getting more trucks, but we are getting heavier ones,’’ Hicks said. ‘‘We definitely want to get something done.’’
Another traffic count would take place on the street soon.
Standring said the council was in discussions with consultants to find an affordable and appropriate way to fix the street and he hoped work would be carried out before the end of the financial year.