Pothole van in Gisborne and Wairoa in November-December

Transport Minister Simeon Brown has rolled out pothole identification vans - one of which will be in the Wairoa district in November and Gisborne in December. Photo / Laura Smith

The high-tech pothole monitoring vans rolling out to identify signs of wear and tear on the roads will be in Tairāwhiti in November and December.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown said when he announced the project that the new Consistent Condition Data Collection (CCDC) survey vans would travel the country hoovering up data to monitor the state of the roads and work out when they need maintenance.

In 2023, over 62,000 potholes peppered the state highway network alone, he said at the time.

One of the five vans involved will be in Wairoa in November and Tairāwhiti/Gisborne in December.

A spokesman for the minister’s office said the survey plans would be updated monthly.

One of the new Consistent Condition Data Collection survey vans being rolled out to identify road wear and tear is coming to Tairāwhiti. Photo / Sonita Chandar

Brown said the Government required automated pavement condition inspections of all sealed roads at least every second year, while surveys of high-class roads would be undertaken annually.

One van will cover Auckland and Northland and another will cover the central North Island. A third will cover the lower North Island and the top of the south, and a fourth will cover the rest of the South Island.

A fifth van will also involved in the programme.

“These vans will provide consistent, high-quality surface condition data at a scale never seen in New Zealand before, replacing the inefficient and manual on-the-ground inspections currently happening in many locations across the country,” Brown said.

“Over the next 10 months, around 80,000km of local roads will be surveyed, providing high-quality surface condition data to RCAs across the country to reduce the number of potholes on our roads.

“They will largely replace manual inspections, which often lead to poorer data collection, variations as a result of human error and increased risk to inspectors’ safety while working in traffic”.

The automated surveys will monitor “roughness, rutting, texture, cracking and geometry”.