Mystery billboard again takes aim at NZTA roadworks in New Plymouth
A mystery digital billboard poking fun at the transport agency has reappeared in New Plymouth.
This time, the sign congratulates the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi on recent roadworks on Breakwater Rd – the main route to Port Taranaki – but poses the question: Will it all have to be dug up again so council can work on underground services in the area?
Breakwater Rd is part of State Highway 44. It is the country's second-shortest state highway at just over 5 kilometres long and got the designation because of the heavy traffic heading to Port Taranaki.
Part of the road has recently had new asphalt laid, but the tongue-in-cheek sign – which mimics Waka Kotahi information boards – suggests there were spray-painted markings on the road and footpath which indicate the diggers might be about to return.
Andy, who was at a lifting company on Breakwater Rd, reckoned someone had slipped up.
“Now you've got all these services marked that go into a road that’s been completed already. It's a bit of a waste of money, isn’t it? If you’re going to do it, do it once and do it right.”
But he did not think Waka Kotahi was solely to blame. “I think the council have a lot of explaining to do too, but they’ve definitely got to speak to each other.
“You know Waka Kotahi, they’re working all over the place trying to fix roads and then if they get told to fix this here and the council comes saying afterwards ‘we’ve got to put in all these services in’ then what a waste of money.”
Meco Engineering general manager Kim Everest was based just down the road and had her own gripe with Waka Kotahi.
“This road is abysmal, it’s super busy, heaps of heavy trucks going through, and the state of the road at our end ... they’ve not done something here [for] quite some time, so it would be good to get it dealt with.”
She said the agency now swept the road once a month, but only after getting complaints about the number of cars being damaged and having windscreens smashed by debris falling from trucks.
Katrina Warren was co-owner of Sentiments florists at the nearby Moturoa shops.
When Waka Kotahi did the earlier work, it was problematic, Warren said.
“It disrupts us hugely. We are in and out all day delivering flowers and what could take 10 minutes ends up taking half and hour, and we didn’t really get much warning until the night before. It wasn’t really done that well."
There appeared to be a communication breakdown, she said. “Why didn’t they communicate and do the service work first before the road was done, you know?”
She also thought the council had a role to play.
“Yes, I think they do. You know, if they had services [to do], they know if the road is getting done and they should’ve communicated and said ‘hey, let’s get on to that now rather than later’ and before the road is done. It’s a bit of common sense really.”
She was in two minds about the billboard. “It’s funny in one respect, but in the other respect, we don’t want to see the roads ripped up again. It’s just a waste of money again.”
The district council said it met quarterly with Waka Kotahi, utility companies and other councils to co-ordinate road works in order to minimise disruption.
“The recent NZTA Waka Kotahi work on SH44 Breakwater Rd is a temporary surface (micro-surfacing) that will mitigate further wear and tear until we begin replacing water pipes on Breakwater Rd over the next financial year."
The council did not respond to a question asking if it knew who was behind the sign.
In a statement, Waka Kotahi regional relationships director Linda Stewart thanked the person behind the billboard for “highlighting their concern”.
The transport agency was aware of the district council’s plans to upgrade underground services along the highway, Stewart said.
“We have been liaising with New Plymouth District Council from an early stage to align our planned renewal with the council's water main works. This is why the pavement has been smoothed to treat the immediate road surface concerns until a full rebuild of the road can be undertaken once the council’s watermain renewals are completed in the future.”
Stewart reiterated the district council’s comment the smoothing treatment was a temporary solution.
“We made the decision to expedite this interim treatment after consultation with road users and residents in the area.”
The pavement work cost $122,000 and focused on the residential area as the area of immediate concern.
Last month, the digital billboard appeared at the Junction Rd intersection with State Highway 3, the main road out of New Plymouth heading south.
That time it took aim at the quality of recently completed roadworks. - RNZ
A knife has been recovered from the scene of a Gisborne brawl that left two dead, and has been sent to a lab for testing.
The brawl occurred at a party, a 21st birthday for Chrysler Stevens-Mark, where he and Kane Taare Gray, a Black Power gang member, died.
Two men had been arrested in relation to the homicide investigation, a 25-yearold man and a 29-year-old-man, who are both charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Yesterday police said a number of items had been sent to ESR for analysis - including a knife that was recovered from the scene.
Police continued to appeal for more information regarding the incident.
The three people who were injured during the incident had been discharged from hospital, Detective Inspector Dave de Lange said.
“Police are continuing to review the charges laid against the two arrested men.”
Here’s a wee test we should all try, a checkup on what news we need in order to keep a healthy mind. It’s prompted by the compelling bulletin that one of our government departments appears to be cutting back its news consumption by 16%.
That, in turn, is because of Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ demand for a 6.5% chop in gummint spending.
How reassuring to learn we’re to be ruled by such precise statistical strategies.
Should we adapt our supermarket spending and buy 6.5% fewer apples and less milk?
New World would need to lay on kitchen knives and measuring cups.
Anyway, here’s the test: which 16% of the news would you eschew if, like the Ministry of Internal Affairs, you were forced to reduce reading, listening or watching reports of public affairs?
By that I mean the constant monitoring the media does of idiot things our governors get up to.
I can help.
Here’s an example of what I’d regard as essential daily news discourse in terms of readability, information and entertainment.
It was the yarn about the ageing professor of ecology in Wellers who is alarming neighbours by letting his grass berm grow wild.
It got so long someone knocked on his door to check if he’d died.
He hadn’t, and commented drily that a check three weeks after his last appearance wasn’t reassuring, kind though the checker was to bother.
An aside: how long do you reckon you could go as an undiscovered death before someone in your neighbourhood noticed… or cared?
Anyway, the prof reckons his uncut lawns are healthier because he allows them to burgeon into mini-jungles that sustain more insect life.
There was a moment for pause when you learned he thinks global insect life is diminishing.
Here’s me thinking the little buggers are taking over, especially fruit flies in our house over summer.
So, that was news I consumed to the end. It wouldn’t have made my 16% bin. And I’m hoping government ministries responsible for scientific advancement would have left it out of theirs, as well.
Sports stories about rugby and cricket players would make the grade because Super Rugby is a decent competition this season, while cricket, male and female, continues to cause the kind of despair we need in short measure to keep our feet on the ground.
Stories about political screwups should always be in the 84% box, because they sustain our scepticism about government in general. That’s “scepticism”, not “cynicism”.
Despite all its numbers (I got 24% for school cert maths) the business world is worth keeping an eye on, even if some days it seems to be a realm of fraud and mismanagement.
The problem with 16, though, is it’s nowhere near enough to include the stuff I don’t want to know about, but which tends to dominate news outlets.
The predominance comes from a progression, forced by cutbacks, towards coverage that is fast, easy, trivial, accessible and heavily manipulated by public relations hacks.
That’s news of crime, road deaths, court cases, accidents, misfortune, faux triumphs, royalty, stupidity and climate change. And politics.
Those topics are more easily reported when your newsroom has been stripped of specialisation and needs-must becomes the realm of generalists responding urgently to life’s never-ending same-day crises.
Few of the journalism students I encountered in my quarter century of teaching mentioned that world in their entry interviews, apart from a few with ambitions to go to the Ukraines or Gaza Strips of the world.
Most were attracted by the thought of researching and writing/recording/ videoing stories of depth that might make a difference to the world.
I welcomed that.
How naive we were back in the 90s and 2000s.
I no longer read shallow news, as I perceive it, and wonder if my 16% plus is the same as that chosen by Internal Affairs.
Perhaps they could elaborate, so we get a better idea of what to expect in the next three years as some of our government seeks to restrain itself from being properly informed.
Up the Ministry of Education, by the way.
They’re having nothing to do with such a ridiculous notion.
I wonder what news Nicola Willis is cutting out. Surely she could confide. That’s a bit of missing information definitely lurking in my 84 bin.
■ Footnote: Apologies for going missing last Saturday. I’ve just had a new hip inserted and needed a rest. Healing well.
– Jim Tucker is a journalist and writer based in New Plymouth.