State of our roads.

[Zurdo]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3006565...e-fix-them

An interesting article on the state of our roads. The comparison to Japan is good - the amount of tax payers to fund roads on almost the same land area...we are on the back foot from the start. And we have sealed too many roads, they are more expensive to maintain.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

The National government raised the weight level allowed on our roads. The transport industry responded by importing bigger vehicles. Our roads were not designed for that increased loading. Local district councils were left to maintain and repair, without the funding to do so.

The results are obvious. Roads of significance - be careful out there.

[Zurdo]

Yes, case in point is the closing of Telephone Rd. This is on 1B, and the trucks rip up the rail tracks on Telephone Rd...and it became an issue between Kiwi Rail and NZTA - who pays for the repairs. Kiwi Rail says it's your trucks ripping it up, you pay, NZTA say, not our tracks. So they closed Telephone Rd for several months until the new Expressway opened and the trucks stopped using 1B. (Telephone Rd still closed) This sent all the trucks down Seddon Rd as a detour (on my commute, I use it everyday), and Seddon Rd is always a hell of a mess as it is laid over a peat swamp...so they lowered the speed limit to 50kph. Come summer I expect Seddon Rd will have some extensive work done to repair the damage inflicted.

[Oldfellah]

Move more tonnage by rail, reduce the amount of trucks on our roads.
The last time I was in Sydney I caught a bus from my daughters place to the airport and all the time I kept hearing a dull thud thud thud and I thought the bus had a flat tire but it was the road we were on, it was made of concrete and the thud I could here was the bus going over different sections, I asked why was the road made of concrete and the answer was it was cheaper to maintain if anything went wrong, maybe we should look at something like that here.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Concrete is not an environmentally safe product when used for roading.

[Oldfellah]

Concrete is not an environmentally safe product when used for roading.

Please explain?

[harm_less]

Move more tonnage by rail, reduce the amount of trucks on our roads.
The last time I was in Sydney I caught a bus from my daughters place to the airport and all the time I kept hearing a dull thud thud thud and I thought the bus had a flat tire but it was the road we were on, it was made of concrete and the thud I could here was the bus going over different sections, I asked why was the road made of concrete and the answer was it was cheaper to maintain if anything went wrong, maybe we should look at something like that here.

Concrete has no flexibility so cannot cope with soft subgrades as is often the case in New Zealand, especially in those regions with young soils of volcanic origin such as in Taranaki. Failure of concrete roads results in large slabs subsiding so a far more dangerous situation than potholed chipseal/asphalt road surfaces laid on compacted gravel. Constructing roads with sufficient depth of gravel to support concrete sufficiently is just prohibitively expensive. https://www.nzta.govt.nz/roads-and-rail/...pavements/

Australian geology is more ancient and very different to ours with bedrock often being relatively shallow, a condition that contributes to their frequent flash flood events due to heavy rain not being able to penetrate strata and so running off.

[Oldfellah]

Thanks for that explanation, understood   But what a shame though ... nevermind.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Manufacturing process requires sand, high energy input, and leaves a significant carbon footprint. There are forms of concrete that are designed to be more eco sensitive, but they have retricted uses at present.

[Zurdo]

The concrete main highways of Auckland are still there under the new roads, they didn't rip them up...or at least some years ago when they were making them wider etc. They were well made and hardly needed any repairs after many decades of use.

[harm_less]

The concrete main highways of Auckland are still there under the new roads, they didn't rip them up...or at least some years ago when they were making them wider etc. They were well made and hardly needed any repairs after many decades of use.

I also vaguely remember noticing the rhythmic 'clop, clop' as we travelled on concrete roads in the Napier area about 50 years back. My late father was a roading contractor and I remember him explaining what they were. Don't know if they're still there, possibly now sealed over, but I imagine they may have been part of the 1930's quake rebuild legacy but ended up as a failed experiment perhaps.

[Lilith7]

I don't know what they're using now to repair pot holes but it doesn't seem to be the same quality as whatever was used previously. Pot holes which have been 'fixed' here often need re doing in a matter of months.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Be good when in a few more decades, and we've gone electric, roads become chargers for the vehicles that travel on them. Like the ones now in use in Europe...

[Lilith7]

Be good when in a few more decades, and we've gone electric, roads become chargers for the vehicles that travel on them. Like the ones now in use in Europe...

That would be brilliant - especially if by then, the overpriced electric bikes are affordable.

[Oldfellah]

Dont worry, like me you two old biddies wont be around to see if the roads go electric or not so no use dreaming about it.

[Zurdo]

I have a Conspiracy Theory - there is a road in a mess, and we have a big repair...all day, all the machines, all the dayglow men, lollypops - it's the real deal, we are fixing the road. All good, thank you FH. But 2 weeks later it's all ripped up again, the new seal has lifted again, potholes...grrrr. Then they do the whole thing again, same as before, but this time it's a pretty good repair and lasts for maybe a year. So what, the first one was temporary...or was it just a bad job ? Who pays for doing it twice ? Us of course.

[Lilith7]

Dont worry, like me you two old biddies wont be around to see if the roads go electric or not so no use dreaming about it.

Oh, pith orf!
Dreams are free!


At least until the ACT party gets in...

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Or those bloody Nats. Then the bastards'll charge for them. And tax them...

[girlgeorgina]

they are shocking here in taranaki. i rode my motorbike south to wanganui a couple of weeks ago, and was a nervous rider until i got to waverly, where magically the roads improved and i was no longer concerned about hidden holes. before that, i hit quite a few that were hidden until too late to go around them. i am no novice rider, have ridden many many miles in the 17 years of being licensed. i dont ride recklessly, but never have i felt so worried about the state of the road before.

this rain is not helping. some of us got out of work early friday due to the high chance of a certain bridge being closed. between midday friday and midday saturday, the pot holes had increased hugely. plus we saw stupidity at its finest, friday there were 2 workers out, in the pouring rain, splashing water out of pot holes and another shoveling asphalt in. come saturday, it had either blown out, or had set into massive lumps almost as bad as what they were repairing. who knows what they will be like this morning.

[Lilith7]

Or those bloody Nats. Then the bastards'll charge for them. And tax them...

Yeah - & probably add a road toll on those most used roads!

---

they are shocking here in taranaki. i rode my motorbike south to wanganui a couple of weeks ago, and was a nervous rider until i got to waverly, where magically the roads improved and i was no longer concerned about hidden holes. before that, i hit quite a few that were hidden until too late to go around them. i am no novice rider, have ridden many many miles in the 17 years of being licensed. i dont ride recklessly, but never have i felt so worried about the state of the road before.

this rain is not helping. some of us got out of work early friday due to the high chance of a certain bridge being closed. between midday friday and midday saturday, the pot holes had increased hugely. plus we saw stupidity at its finest, friday there were 2 workers out, in the pouring rain, splashing water out of pot holes and another shoveling asphalt in. come saturday, it had either blown out, or had set into massive lumps almost as bad as what they were repairing. who knows what they will be like this morning.

The thing about a push bike is that you can at least see the pot holes more easily, & if there's no other traffic in the way, avoid them.
There was quite a big one around the road before last Xmas, & I was very tempted to deposit a small xmas tree in it.