Kāpiti Expressway: more cracks and still waiting for repairs to leaky surface

Thursday, 24 May 2018

A screenshot from a 2017 video showing damage to the expressway.

Repairs on the $630 million Kāpiti Expressway are continuing, as the mega-road springs even more leaks.

Eight months after the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) revealed 14 kilometres of the 18km road needed resealing, it says the work isn't done yet and the problem has grown.

It's been a long road to completing repairs on the $630m expressway.

Only two kilometres of both northbound and southbound lanes have been repaired, NZTA senior manager project delivery Chris Hunt said.

'The discolouration has increased progressively on the old seal, but the progressive pavement remedial work will capture all the areas that need repair.'

While the damaged sections are growing, the NZTA say it won't cost more to repair.

* Problem with expressway seal identified

* Expressway vehicles bombed from overbridge**

The expressway's slow lanes started leaking just months after opening in February 2017, resulting in discoloured cracks along the north and southbound lanes. Water leaking through a seal between the base – or pavement – and the asphalt was to blame.

Hunt said it had taken time to develop the right methodology through trials and to be sure the fix would be lasting.

'The work is weather-dependant and we have also needed balance our resources with the Open Graded Porous Asphalt surfacing work which has been a key priority.'

The surface was being constantly monitored and was safe to drive on. Work could be completed shortly and the members of the Expressway Alliance, a group of contractors and NZTA, would be sharing the costs.

None of the fully-repaired sections had failed, but some areas had been 'temporarily resurfaced to avoid further deterioration in the pavement,' Hunt said.

'While some of these [have] discoloured again, these patches allowed us to work out the best treatment for the full remedial repairs which we have committed to.'

Many Kāpiti locals were annoyed by the roadworks and thought the repairs had failed.

Waikanae man Allen Green said there had been major roadworks on the expressway for the past six months, he said.

'I find this a ludicrous situation for a brand new road with no end in sight to the never-ending row after row of road cones and reduced speed limits,' Green said.

'Has anybody been held accountable for this debacle, or do we just keep paying, through our taxes, for a never-ending repair bill?'

Eugene Sokolov from Waikanae Beach agreed, and said it looked like repairs hadn't worked on sections between Waikanae and Paraparaumu where the road was white, slumped and uneven.

Sections that were recently replaced were experiencing the same issue as the original ones, he said.

Brent Keith also believed there was something wrong with the repairs.

'The white substitute has reappeared, we were told it was initially due to water seepage from poor craftsmanship and materials. Once, possible … but twice, somebody needs to be held accountable. '