Highway maintenance works well under way
Spring upkeep starts but no word yet on Mangamuka Gorge
Waka Kotahi NZTA has announced its spring maintenance works are now under way, with around $18.6 million going towards repairing roads across Northland and north Auckland.
Residents have already started to feel the impact in their daily commute, as the roading agency kickstarts the country’s largest road renewal season across Te Tai Tokerau’s state highway network.
A total of 133 lane kilometres of chip seal, 15 lane kilometres of resealing, and 10 lane kilometres of rehabilitation will be completed, along with 27 lane kilometres treated for skid resistance.
Forty-seven per cent of the chipseal works, 11 per cent of the asphalt works and 3 per cent of the rehab works will be carried out in the Far North.
Waka Kotahi maintenance and operations regional manager Jacqui Hori-Hoult said the level of maintenance works planned for the SH network would mean travellers should expect regular and ongoing delays.
“Because our contractors will be delivering work during the warmer, drier months of the year, it’ll mean some level of disruption across the state highway network throughout summer,” Hori-Hoult said.
“At any time during the night there might be more than 100 workers out on our network hard at work fixing our roads.
“However, plans will be in place to complete this work as efficiently and
effectively as possible, minimising the overall impact on people using the roads.”
Hori-Hoult said this season’s national renewal programme was one of the most significant the roading agency had undertaken.
As well as the above work, it would also resurface pavements during road closures and undertake other maintenance activities such as drainage, cleaning and line marking.
Potholes have been another hot topic for Northland residents this year, with several news stories highlighting residents’ concerns about the state of the roads.
A new Facebook group, Northland potholes, has even been dedicated to
the problem.
Waka Kotahi said that in the past month, the Northland team had resealed more than nine lane kilometres of state highway.
Hori-Hoult said the agency had completed 11,500 square metres of isolated patches on the state highway network and repaired the underlying road structure ahead of resealing later in the season.
She said the day-to-day maintenance would be carried out by nine cyclic crews, accompanied by a traffic management crew tasked with repairing potholes, clearing drains, picking up litter and more.
“Temporary traffic management measures will include traffic cones,
vehicles that act as a barrier for workers safety and early warning vehicles, alerting road users of workers ahead,” Hori-Hoult said.
“We want all of our people on the network to go home each night to their loved ones and thank you for your patience and for adhering to the temporary speed limits as we carry out this essential work to keep the state highway network safe, accessible and resilient.
“Due to the level of activity across the network we recommend road users check the Waka Kotahi Journey Planner before starting their journeys.”
Northland’s roads have also been severely affected by one of the wettest winters on record this year.
As a result of the heavy rain, the Far North is once again experiencing the pain of not being able to travel through the Mangamuka Gorge.
The gorge was closed indefinitely in August after severe weather caused several slips along SH1 over Maunga Taniwha.
Hori-Hoult confirmed that her team was still assessing the situation and hoped to present that information to its board late next month.
Far North REAP Road Safety manager Jodi Betts said the disruption caused by the gorge closure was particularly concerning heading into summer.
The Road Safety team is working with basketball’s FIBA 2022 Polynesian
People travelling north
need to remember to take it easy on the roads
and not race to get here Far North REAP Road Safety manager
Jodi Betts
Cup in Kaitaia this week and Betts said the closure had caused numerous problems for people wishing to attend.
“We had a few of the international teams caught out with their trip heading north,” Betts said.
“It just goes to show that we can put on an international event, but to get people here is actually really hard and a real safety issue.”
Betts said people needed to also be aware of the risks associated with travelling on some of the alternative roads to the gorge and to ensure they made it to their destination safely.
“People travelling north need to