Pothole pain: Rodney district residents turn to DIY road maintenance

A motorist tired of waiting for council to fill in a road of potholes that resemble Swiss cheese has taken to fixing it himself - and he's sending a bill to the local authority for the repair.

The gravel rural road in northwest Auckland was left with more than 20 holes on a 20-metre stretch so densely pitted there was no way for drivers to avoid running into them.

A post has appeared on a local northwest Auckland Facebook page featuring the efforts of locals making running repairs on the pock-marked road.

One person shovels gravel from the bucket of his digger into the rain-filled holes, while another on a bike further up the road manages oncoming traffic.

Potholes cover a gravel Auckland rural road, leaving it resembling Swiss cheese. Photo / Supplied

An Auckland Transport spokesperson said they were aware of the situation and understood road-users' frustration but would not be paying the man's bill.

"We do need to ensure all work is done under AT's authority."

Rodney Local Board chairman Phelan Pirrie said while he could understand locals' frustration, turning to DIY was not going to solve the problem.

"Just packing some gravel in when it's wet, you can't compact it.

"I don't know about billing, they can try," said Pirrie.

"I think every local Facebook group has got a pothole story at the moment."

Local Board deputy Beth Houlbrooke said the problem was not limited to Taupaki, Huapai and Kumeu.

"We've got 670km of gravel roads in Rodney and they're all mostly in a similar state," she said.

"It's not often that people post to say that they've fixed up the road themselves but it's not uncommon either.

"A lot of small communities, they do go out and fix the roads up themselves and of course they shouldn't have to."

She said the significant rainfall hadn't helped but even before the recent deluges, most of these roads were falling apart.

Gravel roads were not prioritised by Auckland Transport for funding, with places like Rodney missing out, Houlbrooke said.

"There's been so much under-investment to rural roads and it's not funny.

"We shouldn't have to put up with this standard. No one in the city would put up with this."

Pirrie said he had been forced down to 10km/h to travel along his region's roads.

"Gravel roads, when it rains, the gravel washes off and you get potholes and this is what happens every single year. We've had a hell of a lot of rain, pretty much every day for two weeks now, so that's just what is going to happen.

A person uses a stop-go sign to warn oncoming traffic that work is underway. Photo / Supplied

"After nine years I'm expert on potholes - it's so sad."

He urged people to report road surface problems to councils for repair.

He said he frequently people posted about their potholes on Facebook rather than contacting Auckland Transport.

"If I see a pothole I immediately log it and generally within 24 to 48 hours it gets done."

But even when they regraded the surface and filled potholes with gravel, the wet and wintry conditions meant within a week it was likely to quickly revert to holes.

"A lot of the roads need to be rebuilt. They're not suitable for the level of traffic that they've got," said Pirrie.

He said it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to seal the region's roads and unfortunately Auckland Council had cut back the budget in recent years.

"We've got hundreds of unsealed roads in Rodney and there's a solution but it requires a lot more money than is currently being put towards it."

He said last year Auckland Transport ran a campaign to report potholes but they hadn't done that this year.

The Auckland Transport spokesperson said the authority had a process for fixing potholes swiftly, if they were aware of them.

"We do not want people to do this themselves - as they put themselves and others in harm's way.

"If these potholes are reported through the proper channels, our contractor will get to them. If they are very dangerous they need to be reported to us as an emergency."

The spokesperson said the storm event that started on July 12 and lasted until July 28 - with a rainfall of 191 mm in the Rodney area - has had a huge impact on the network.

"We always aim to fix potholes and other storm-related issues as soon as we can."