$11.6m to be spent on fix for roads

Whangarei District Council roading projects engineer Kevin Barry at Dundas Rd, which will be resurfaced. Photo / John Stone

An $11.6 million battle to repair patchy seals and potholes is about to begin, as focus shifts toward a longer-term fix for Whangarei's ageing road network.

The spend includes $2.8 million on roads that will be dug up and resurfaced, after years of temporary fixes.

Riverside's Dundas Rd is the first road to be resurfaced.

Resident Barb Patu said her road was used by "hundreds of people each day" headed for Mt Parihaka's walking tracks, yet the installation of new sewerage, water and broadband infrastructure had left it in a poor, patchy condition.

"I think the timing is good ... it's been dug up and resealed and dug up and resealed," Ms Patu said.

Dave Reyburn, a former district councillor, walked up Dundas Rd to the Dobbie Track about once a week and agreed it was overdue for an upgrade.

Portland's Manaia Rd, Kauri's Saleyards Rd, part of Vinegar Hill Rd in Tikipunga and short sections of the forestry road network would follow between September 2015 and April 2016 at a total cost of $2.8 million. Focus was shifting away from short-term reseals toward a focus on rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation was essentially a total replacement as the road reached the end of its useful life and resealing became uneconomical.

"We have a strategy at the moment that has been focused on reseals, which is like painting the house," Mr Devine said. "We've been painting but some of the weatherboards have started to give up. Rehabilitation is equivalent to replacing the weatherboards."

The focus on "painting" was only achievable for a short period of time, with council returning to a focus on rehabilitation in it 2015-2025 Long Term Plan, Mr Devine said.

"We're going back towards rehabilitation but it will take a while for that change to happen."

Work on Dundas Rd would start in mid-October once tenders were finalised.

As well as this work, $5.3 million would be spent on 100km of resealing, plus another 100km of preseal repairs in preparation for next year.

The remainder of the $11.6 million budget would be spent unsealed road metalling, drainage renewals and operations.

Mr Devine said Whangarei's roading seals were on average about 15-18 years old, though the ideal lifespan was 12 years, depending on the traffic volume of the road.

Despite this, he said roads were in a "reasonable" condition overall.

- Is your road in Whangarei in need of a total rebuild? Let us know, and include pictures of the damaged surface if possible, to reporters@northernadvocate.co.nz