Motorists mad at damage to cars at roadworks
Roadworks on State Highway 2 north between Woodland Rd and Kauri Point Road on Saturday meant queues of traffic backed up to Katikati town and almost to the Waihi Beach turnoff. Motorists posted on Facebook that they had broken windscreens and stone chips to their vehicles after driving through the site.
Catherine Arrow posted on the Katikati Advertiser Facebook page that there were at least 10 drivers who posted they had damage to their windscreens. Others had bodywork damage and at least one had a side window shattered. The roadworks were badly managed, badly timed — hot weather ruined the work — and badly signposted, they said. Comments were that the whole debacle was “just plain dangerous” and whoever was responsible for managing the project needed to seriously rethink the way they do things and pay for repairs.
Other posts — David Bradshaw: “My screen has a huge crack in it. I was stationary at the time when a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction started to speed up, after travelling over the new seal, throwing lumps of new seal all over the place, and a piece hit my screen.”
Jina Donovan: “Driver’s window smashed all over my partner and the two kids’ carseats (one being newborn!) Lucky my kids weren’t in the car!”
Lisa Penney: “Just gone to clean all the tar off my car and hello more damage! Not happy!”
The sealing carried out on SH2 between Woodland Rd and Kauri Point Rd on Saturday started at 7am and was completed around 10.30am.
Although it was hotter later in the day, during the morning while the sealing was taking place the temperature wasn’t hot enough to affect the seal and the temperature later in the day was not unusually hot for this type of work, said Rob Campbell, NZ Transport Agency Systems Manager.
“However, the heat of the vehicles and the tyres stopping on the seal either side of the project softened the seal and caused minor damage to the surface. This allowed some bitumen to soften and move from there.”
He said it’s possible some of this soft bitumen has caused new chip to stick to tyres as they drive over the new works, and this may have resulted in more flying chip. The road was swept before re-opening fully to all motorists.
“We apologise to any motorists that experienced this while driving through the site on Saturday,” Campbell said. The Transport Agency has no more chip seal sites planned for SH2 this year.
“However over summer we have a large programme of works across the county, and while there is a moratorium on all works over the Christmas period this programme will begin again in the new year. This maintenance is essential to keep our roads safe,” he said.
Campbell said they reminded motorists to adhere to the temporary speed limits through road works for safety reasons, but also to reduce the chance of damage to vehicles driving through sites.
To report any issues on the highway, including at roadworks, call 0800 4 highways.