Opinion: Are our roads the worst they’ve ever been?

Does Waka Kotahi have the internal expertise to select the right people to do road building and road maintenance in New Zealand? Photo / NZME

OPINION:

I can remember a time when it had to be a really stinking hot day for the seal on the roads to melt.

And those really stinking hot days were pretty much few and far between, which meant melting roads were few and far between too. These days, though, it’s a completely different story, isn’t it?

The latest example in a long line of examples of roads falling apart came at the weekend when motorists in the Auckland area were advised to avoid a stretch of State Highway One after the tarseal started peeling and sticking to vehicles.

Tyres were clogged with tar and stones. An absolute shambles. At least 40 vehicles were damaged.

I see the National Party is calling for compensation to be paid to people who got caught up in it all - through no fault of their own. And I actually think National’s on the money because, from the photos I’ve seen, these cars have been left in a real shambles.

Then we had Nick Leggett from the Road Transport Forum on Newstalk ZB this morning saying that the trucking industry has been putting up with this for quite a long time. With increased maintenance costs and all that because of the state of our roads.

But, of course, it’s not just truckies who are affected. And not just in terms of maintenance and cost, but safety-wise as well.

I don’t know how many times I’ve either hit a pothole, for example, or seen a pothole just in time and come away thinking how badly things could have gone.

Nick Leggett says some of the blame sits with Waka Kotahi - and he really questions whether the transport agency has the internal expertise to select the right people to do road building and road maintenance in New Zealand.

He’s also pointing the finger at the current government and previous governments for what he describes as “chronic underfunding of roads over a long period of time”.

This is fine to say when we’re talking about state highways - which is what Waka Kotahi and the central government are responsible for. But I think local councils are just as guilty. Because it’s our local councils that are responsible for roading and maintenance in their geographical areas.

I can remember talking with someone about the roads in Canterbury and the state they’re in, then later that same day jumping in the car and heading to Dunedin for a long weekend.

And all the way down to Dunedin on State Highway One - potholes, sides of the road falling away. Our main trunk line for cars, trucks and motorbikes and just a real shambles.

Then, when I got to Dunedin, I remember driving down George St and it looked like the road was falling to bits left, right and centre. In fact, it didn’t just look like it. The road was falling to bits left, right and centre.

So, yes, Waka Kotahi and successive governments do carry some of the blame, but local authorities are just as much to blame.

And I know people bang on about climate change and roads being under a lot more pressure because of extreme weather and all of that. Which Leggett acknowledged this morning. But does that mean they’re going to keep doing what they’re doing and hope that the roads hold up?

Because that would be insanity, wouldn’t it? If the conditions have changed - then change the roads accordingly. You would think that’d be the plan, wouldn’t you?

But no - we’ll just keep on doing things the way we’re doing them and just hope for the best. And, as long as we do that, we’ll see more of what we saw at the weekend with tarseal peeling away and causing all sorts of damage to tyres and undercarriages.

We’ll see more roads crumbling under the weight of all the heavy vehicles on our roads. And those of us in urban areas will still - at best - be avoiding potholes or dealing with the consequences of ending up in one.

And making our way through all the other hazards out there caused by what looks more and more like a broken roading system.