Mayors demand answers over ‘atrocious’ state of roads

We have been given a lot of excuses why these roads are in such poor condition.

Taranaki’s three mayors and the chair of the Regional Council have written to the Minister of Transport about the state of Taranaki’s highways, calling them “appalling”, “atrocious” and “unacceptable”.

A letter from the Taranaki Mayoral Forum to Minister Michael Wood was sent last week, raising concerns about the condition of the region’s roads and how unsafe they have become.

“We have communicated in the past about the appalling state of our SH3, SH3A and SH45 through Taranaki,” the letter begins.

“We have been given a lot of excuses why these roads are in such poor condition, however, the fact remains that there has been a total lack of investment in the network over a considerable number of years.”

The letter, signed by New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom, South Taranaki Mayor and forum chair Phil Nixon, Stratford Mayor Neil Volzke, and Taranaki Regional Council chair David MacLeod, says recent bad weather has led to multiple cars being damaged as a result of the poor condition of the highways.

“Due to the very poor condition of our roads, we have very recently experienced unprecedented amounts of potholes, especially on SH3, due in part to the recent rain events. We have had reports (and seen photographs) of multiple cars stopped on the roadsides in a number of places, either changing tyres or awaiting salvage vehicles to remove vehicles with multi-wheel and suspension damage.”

Quoting damage to emergency vehicles, as well as those of members of the public — with examples given of a police car losing two wheels, and an ambulance suffering tyre damage and tearing off a bumper — the letter asks what Waka Kotahi plans to do to address the problem.

“We understand that nationally, Waka Kotahi is sweating its assets, and that from 2015 to 2020, average seal age across the country rose from 6.86 to 7.96 years and the average remaining seal life dropped from 2.18 to 1.23 years. We would like Waka Kotahi to advise the Taranaki statistics for seal age and seal life over the past decade, and the approach to addressing these issues in the short, medium and long term.”

The condition of the region’s roads that fall under the management of Waka Kotahi is unacceptable, the letter says. Pointing out that the region’s local roads which are maintained by the relevant local council and are not in the same poor condition, the letter challenges Waka Kotahi’s assertion that Covid-19 or a specific soil type is to blame for some of the current issues.

“The condition of our highways is totally unacceptable and is affecting our Taranaki transport network in many ways. Our local roads in the main are maintained to a far higher level than the state highways and they are built on the same “volcanic soils”, out of the same materials, and [were] maintained through the same “Covid-19 pandemic” as our State Highways. To suggest that Covid-19 is to blame for some of the problems is inaccurate.”

Action is needed, the mayoral forum said, warning that without major upgrades to the region’s roads in the near future, it is likely that “serious injuries could occur, given the unsafe avoidance measures people are having to take whilst driving on the State Highways”.

Taranaki Mayoral Forum