One local has resorted to sweeping debris off the road.
Robbie Robinson reckons he’s watched contractors patch up the potholes outside his Mount Maunganui home 11 times in two-and-a-half years.
But the fixes never seem to last and after years of having to sweep up chunks of road – some “half the size of a dinner plate” – the 80-year-old just wants the potholes fixed properly.
A senior Tauranga City Council manager has now apologised, and agreed the state of the road was not “ideal” and “permanent repairs” were coming.
Robinson believed the potholes were not being fixed “properly”.
“You can’t just shovel gravel in there and leave it. What [the council is] doing is not sufficient. If you are going to do a job like that, you do it once. You don’t come back 11 times.
Robinson did not know how many times he had been “out there, sweeping that loose metal”.
“This chip seal is no good. The water gets underneath it.”
Mount Maunganui resident Robbie Robinson regularly sweeps the road outside his home of debris created by pothole patches breaking up. Photo / Alex Cairns
Robinson has a background working in supply yards, trucking and roading “so I know what I’m talking about”.
He believed installing tarmac or asphalt instead of chip seal would solve the issue.
Robinson, who lives near Arataki School, said he had been told the council planned “to do it properly” after the school holidays.
That was two school holidays ago.
“There’s enough loose metal there to do half a concrete driveway.”
The debris created its own issues, being flicked up into cars or caught in tyres, he said. Some chunks seen by the Bay of Plenty Times were as large as golf balls but far more jagged.
“Sometimes it’s a lot worse than this. Sometimes there are chunks half the size of a dinner plate.”
He said schoolchildren passed by twice a day - one of his motivations for sweeping up the debris.
Mount Maunganui resident Robbie Robinson says the messy potholes outside his home have been reoccurring for two and a half years despite, by his count, at least 11 visits from council contractors. Photo / Alex Cairns
Council general manager of infrastructure Nic Johansson said the council planned for “permanent repairs” of the road over summer .
“The repair needs to be chip seal because the underlying surface would need to be completely rebuilt if asphalt was to be used. Asphalt is five times the cost of chip seal.”
Asphalt was generally reserved for high-traffic areas with many heavy vehicles, or for a special reason such as noise or turning stresses.
Johansson said contractors had been instructed to repair the area and keep it free of any loose debris “until the permanent repairs are completed over the summer school holidays”.
“We agree that the current state of the road isn’t ideal and apologise for the frustration and inconvenience it has caused the community.
“The section of road has deteriorated over the last couple of years which has been compounded by bad weather.
“Unfortunately, the colder temperatures haven’t allowed us to do a permanent fix this year, meaning we’ve had to patch it where we can.”
Tauranga City Council infrastructure general manager Nic Johansson. Photo / George Novak
Johansson said the road was dug up as part of a roundabout construction near the school about three years ago.
Asked how many times contractors had been to Kaimanawa St to repair potholes since then, Johansson said, “when it’s been brought to our attention”.
The council resurfaced about 4 to 5 per cent of the city’s roads with hot mix asphalt or chip seal each year, which translated to about 25 to 30 kilometres a year.
It spent about $3 million each year on resurfacing roads. This was partly funded by the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.
Under the council’s resealing policy, Kaimanawa Rd was considered a category 4 or 5, meaning due to its lack of vehicles a day and residential area, it was most suited for chip seal.
Collector roads carrying moderate traffic volumes and connecting residential streets and the arterial network are in category 3.
Arterial roads are category 2 and commercial/industrial and the city’s main shopping areas are categories 1B and 1A respectively. All of these categories are suited for asphalt sealing, under the policy.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
