KEY POINTS:
If you live in Auckland and think your roads get dug up far too often - you're right.
A lack of co-ordination between utility companies has been blamed for repeated episodes of roadworks that the Government has now decided is excessive.
A paper released yesterday by the ministers of transport, economic development and energy highlighted that North Shore City averaged over five roadworks per kilometre of road in the 2004/05 year.
Only 66 per cent of the works reinstated the road to a condition that was considered acceptable.
The cost of works nationally is not just felt by private motorists or businesses trying to use the road - Local Government New Zealand has estimated that the national cost of re-work and repairs associated with utility works is $40 million each year.
It costs about $250,000 per lane kilometre to fully reinstate a road surface after works.
Concern about the regularity and impact of roadworks has led the Government to decide that local road controlling authorities should be given an explicit co-ordination role for works.
Finer detail of how co-ordination would be handled - such as whether one utility company's work might have to wait until another company also wants to excavate - has not yet been decided.
But Economic Development Minister Trevor Mallard is hopeful the new co-ordination role will reduce the inconvenience and cost associated with works.
The change will be made as part of a wider series of moves to improve utilities' access to road, rail and motorway corridors.
"One of the main inefficiencies associated with the current regime is lack of co-ordination between the various utilities who need access to pipes and lines running underneath roads," Mr Mallard said. "The resulting traffic delays and damage to road surfaces, as roads are dug up repeatedly, cause ongoing frustration for motorists and road operators."
New Zealand has 75 road controlling authorities, each with its own set of requirements for roadworks.
The authorities are typically part of territorial local authorities.
A combination of so many authorities and a variety of electricity, telecommunications, water, sewerage, drains and gas companies wanting to dig the road up has led to the excessive amount of roadworks.
The Government's examination of utilities' access to road corridors last year spurred a discussion paper which drew 53 submissions, mostly from councils and utilities such as Telecom and Metrowater.
After considering their views, the Government has come up with its "position paper", which will now form the basis of detailed policy development. Legislative changes look likely to happen as a series of co-ordinated amendments to existing statutes.
The Government is also hopeful that the work could have a road safety spin-off.
The Ministry of Transport is keen to reduce the number of fatal and serious crashes where vehicles collide with roadside hazards such as poles.
Half of rural and just over a quarter of urban crashes involve a roadside hazard, and reducing the problem has been complicated by a lack of agreement between roading authorities and utility providers over who should pay to move a pole.
ROADWORKS RAGE
* North Shore City averaged over five roadworks a kilometre of road in the 2004/05 year.
* Only 66 per cent of the works reinstated the road to a condition that was considered acceptable.
