Motorists be warned: A summer of orange traffic cones is approaching

Monday, 26 September 2022

Waka Kotahi is beginning its largest maintenance programme to date next month.

Motorists will see more orange road cones than usual this summer, with Waka Kotahi tackling its largest maintenance and rehabilitation programme on the roading network.

A wet winter in the Waikato has seen an increased deterioration of the roads, resulting in vehicles having to dodge hazardous potholes.

Starting in October, in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty, there will be more than 700 lane kilometres of the network being rebuilt or resealed by the end of March 2023, which equates to about 14% of the regional state highway network.

Regional manager of maintenance and operations Rob Campbell said the maintenance programme was getting bigger across the whole country.

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“We have done less rehabilitation and renewal work over the past 10 years, and that is a deliberate strategy employed to get the most out of our assets and make sure we get value for money.

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“We knew at some point around now we needed to start increasing our investment levels just to keep the state highways at the same level they have been for the past few years,” Campbell said.

The central Waikato has been severely affected by long periods of wet weather, which Campbell said meant more potholes.

“Waikato is particularly vulnerable partly because of its temperatures; we have a very narrow season to do all the resealing and rehabilitation.

“It is really challenging to get ahead of what needs to be done, and if the pavement surfacing is not where it needs to be and then the high levels of rain cause more failure than we are comfortable with.”

Key locations will be in the Coromandel where more than 20km of chip seal will be laid along with rebuilding some sections of the roads, which means removing the existing road material and replacing it.

Motorists can expect to see a lot more traffic management this summer

He said that in the first few weeks of October there would be about a dozen crews working on various activities across the region.

Involved early in the work will be SH25 up the west side of the Coromandel, asphalt resurfacing in Te Awamutu, Pūtāruru and Whakatāne, and road rebuilds in the Waimana Gorge and near Whenuakite.

There are also significant work programmes planned for SH2 between Waihī and Ōmokoroa and on SH1 through the Desert Road, which will see more than 30km of chip seal, asphalt and some rebuilds.

In Hamilton, there is more than 10km of asphalt resurfacing to be done.

Campbell said it did mean disruption for motorists would be a constant, so he was encouraging people to check their journeys beforehand.

The truck that is used to survey state highways for Waka Kotahi

“There will inevitably be some delays. Sometimes we will be having stop/go so you may be stuck in queues, not for a long time, but it will affect your journey. But also some places where we will have to close the road for a period of time and give people detours.”

Waka Kotahi is aware that summer is a popular time for travellers and therefore it tries to plan accordingly, so any work required around popular Christmas holiday destinations is planned for early in the season.

There is also a moratorium on work around statutory holidays and big events – there won’t be work done the day before or the day after because of high traffic volumes.

The Waikato Expressway has highlighted the fact that the older roads are not built to the same standard as the new SH1.

“The roads through central Waikato that have been there for a long time, they were built for a service at the time, and they are rural roads, and they don’t carry the volume that we see on the expressway.”

As Waka Kotahi is the asset manager it contracts to the big tier one companies such as Fulton Hogan and Higgins to carry out the physical work.

Normally this type of work would start later to get more certainty of the weather, however Campbell said the decision to start earlier meant they would have to work with the weather.

“It may mean we start some projects and slow down a little bit just at certain stages. But you can see us out there seven days a week and there will be some night work, especially in the urban areas.”

And if it is raining contractors will move on to other areas like drainage and vegetation.

Waka Kotahi have a rolling three-year plan to give an insight into what is coming up, which can be adjusted accordingly from the information that is collected annually.

“We have a truck which drives around every year on the state highways across the country, as it drives around it measures skid resistance – that is an important indicator if the road surface is safe – and rutting, and has lasers that measure the profile of the road.

The data over time allows the likes of Campbell to see where and when a road will need work.

“We also have people on the ground who are driving around all the time checking what is happening and what the solution might be to fix it.”

It also relied on the public to inform it of road conditions and took feedback seriously, Campbell said, as they knew their roads quite well, so notices when things changed.

He said Waka Kotahi often got asked why asphalt was not used more but that was largely due to the cost of it.

“But the roads in New Zealand are flexible roads, they move when traffic goes over them. And chip seal is great because it flexes with the road – asphalt is quite brittle, so when a truck goes over it, it breaks much more quickly.”