Road surface blamed for damage

A southern motorist says recent repairs to a state highway near Gore are ‘‘a band-aid over a big wound’’.

A section of State Highway 94 between Gore and Mandeville in Southland has been riddled with potholes and bumps along the centreline for months.

Ame McSporran drives on the road most days to and from work in Gore and has twice ‘‘bellied’’ her Ford Focus on the road surface.

‘‘I could feel the bottom of the car scrape on the road. I have been purposely trying to avoid them but in some cases it’s not safe to do that,’’ she said.

Her car wasn’t damaged on either occasion, but she has had to have wheel alignments done, which she blamed on the road.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency put up warning signs and this week it repaired some potholes, and while McSporran said that was ‘‘promising’’, she didn’t hold out much hope that the repairs would last long.

‘‘They have repaired it this week but it’s just putting a bandaid over a big wound. Give it a couple of months and the holes will be starting to appear again, it happens every time.’’

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says it can’t guarantee every metre of highway will be in perfect condition at all times, but it is planning to reseal a stretch of road this summer.

An agency spokesperson said one accident had been reported where a car flipped, with the driver allegedly blaming the road surface for the crash, and some motorists had complained to the agency about the state of the road.

Late last month, Waka Kotahi Southland network manager Jacob Manson said there was a roughly 1.7km stretch of road due for a full surface rehabilitation next summer, and design work was under way.

The road was inspected late in June and there were a couple of isolated spots where the surface was raised along the centreline. In the industry these are called heaves or heave shove faults, he said.

‘‘We cannot guarantee every metre of highway will be in perfect condition at all times. However, we do believe SH94 overall was in an acceptable condition from last week’s very recent drive-over,’’ Manson said.

The site started deteriorating quite rapidly last season, hence the recent repairs and more to come ahead of the 2022-23 sealing season.

‘‘The work required is more than just a reseal to fix and requires a higher level of resource, design and funding to complete the work which meant it will be delivered this coming summer season as a full package,’’ he said.

About 2390 vehicles travel on the road each day, he said.