Road rehabilitation is set to more than double through the summer road maintenance programme with the Government’s $4 billion Pothole Prevention Fund kicking off.
The fund will help deliver a total of 285.6 lane kilometres of rehabilitation work over the coming summer months – a 124% increase compared to last year. Rehabilitation involves full width repairs of existing roads.
“Long lasting rehabilitation work that strengthens the network and prevents potholes from forming in the first place is critical to lifting the quality of our roading network and has a much longer lasting impact than re-sealing the road,” Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.
“Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is a key priority for the Government, and boosting pothole repairs and prevention will deliver a safe and reliable network that will support this growth.
“The thousands of Kiwi motorists and freight operators driving on our state highways every day have become all too aware of the shocking number of potholes on our roads.
“Our Government has inherited a significant backlog of road maintenance across the country. We are now catching up on the maintenance deficit to ensure that Kiwis and freight can get to where they want to go, quickly and safely.”
The Pothole Prevention Fund delivers $2.07b for state highway pothole prevention and $1.9b for local road pothole prevention over the next three years.
The summer maintenance programme will start in October and will be completed by March 2025.
