Nats' pothole pledge a ‘great first step’

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A pre-election pledge from the National Party to fund pothole repairs has been welcomed by National’s East Coast electorate candidate Dana Kirkpatrick.

The proposals were announced at the weekend and would  establish a $500 million fund for state highway and local roading repairs, provide a new directive to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency to double the current rate of roading renewals and halve the standard response rate for pothole repair from 48 to 24 hours.

“The repair and maintenance of our roading network has never been more critical,” Ms Kirkpatrick said.

“State Highway 2 is in a perilous condition — in some places just one storm away from disappearing into a river — so this surety that National has taken this seriously is reassuring.

“The state highway is the lifeline for much of this electorate, and the lack of investment in sensible upgrades, maintenance and resilient infrastructure is one of the top of mind issues as I go around the region.

“Without the state highway our region is compromised in so many ways — tourism, forestry, agriculture, recreation, patient transfer and the safe movement of goods and services into and out of Gisborne.

“We must also turn our minds to how we build resilient infrastructure that can stand up to climatic disasters and will provide confidence that investment in our region is positive and can stand up to challenging natural events.

“Productivity and access to markets is critical. So this announcement is a great first step.”

National’s Transport spokesman Simeon Brown said National’s pothole repair fund would see an additional $500 million over three years allocated to local authorities and NZTA to address potholes and other damage to both local roads and state highways.

“The cost of the pothole repair fund will be met from re-prioritising spending within the national land transport programme, including a reduction in expenditure on activities which unnecessarily slow traffic down such as blanket speed limit reductions and excessive speed bump installations, or the failed Road to Zero advertising campaign, towards investment in safer roads which are properly maintained,” Mr Brown said.