Kāpiti expressway needs $25 million worth of repairs just two years after opening

Wednesday, 6 March 2019

Taxpayers have been asked to dig deep with more than a third of the $649 million Kāpiti expressway, which opened just two years ago, in need of a $25m repair job.

The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) carried out repairs to 8.9 kilometres of the leaky expressway north of Wellington last year, and confirmed on Wednesday that another 15.8km needs to be fixed.

The total cost of the repairs will be $25.2m with 56 per cent of that cost, or $14.1m, coming from taxpayers.

The repairs are to stop water penetrating the road pavement on about three-quarters of the outside lanes of the four-lane expressway, between Mackays Crossing and Peka Peka on the Kāpiti Coast.

**READ MORE:

* Expressway needs $2.3m repairs

* Still waiting for repairs to leaky surface

* Temporary fix of potholes 'not good enough'**

NZTA acting senior manager of project delivery Karen Boyt said it became apparent soon after the expressway opened that the road surface was not holding up.

'Extensive investigations into issues on the expressway have confirmed the need to carry out repairs of the left lanes in both directions,' she said.

'We identified that water has been penetrating the road pavement, resulting in a discolouration of the road surface and changes to its texture.'

The work was expected to take up to six months, allowing for delays because of poor weather, Boyt said.

About 180 millimetres of pavement would be removed and replaced with asphalt.

'We recognise this is an inconvenience to road users and our stakeholders, and we will be working hard to keep people informed and to minimise impacts as much as possible.'

The expressway's four lanes each measure 16.25km. On the two lefthand lanes, only four kilometres of each – at the northern end – are not in need of repair.

The lanes started leaking just months after the expressway opened 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.

'The agency continues to investigate and monitor the performance of the surfacing on the right lanes of the expressway,' Boyt said.

'Investigations to date have not presented any significant issues.'

Kāpiti Coast Mayor K Gurunathan said the prospect of lengthy roadworks, as well the extra cost to fix the road, was frustrating.

He accused the previous National government of fast-tracking construction of the road of national significance so it could open before the September 2017 general election.

'It appears [the NZTA] must have rushed it and I'd like to know why,' he said. 'They did it very quickly and I suspect it was to get it done before the election.'

Kāpiti Coast district councillor Michael Scott said it was disappointing the extra $25m needed for repairs could not be spent elsewhere.

'However you cut the sandwich, this is money that isn't going to be available for other roading projects.'

One example was the proposed interchange connecting the expressway to the area between Peka Peka and the Ōtaki River, which would have cost about the same amount but was scrapped because the NZTA did not deem it financially viable.

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