Figures from last summer’s state highway maintenance season for the top of the South Island and lower North Island show “a considerable amount” of work was completed despite the weather being much wetter than usual, Waka Kotahi says.
The transport agency has released its maintenance figures across the regions.
For Wellington and Wairarapa, contractors managed to reseal, resurface, and rehabilitate over 45 lane kilometres of road on the state highway network.
“As well as this, they carried out a significant number of resilience works to help better protect the network from risk. This included our ongoing scheduled maintenance programme for State Highway 2, Remutaka Hill,” regional manager Mark Owen says.
Across the top of the South Island – Marlborough and Nelson/Tasman, more progress was made with just under 13% of the network renewed, with over 170 lane kilometres of the state highway network resealed, resurfaced, or rehabilitated.
While the weather conditions this year haven’t been as challenging as those experienced further north, the region still had some major hurdles to overcome, Owen says.
“The post-flood repairs on State Highway 6 between Blenheim and Nelson in late 2022 required a lot of work, as did major slip repairs on State Highway 59, Pukerua Bay and State Highway 58, Haywards Hill. So, to get as much done as we have shows just how hard our contractors have worked.”
Owen says while winter is here, the work for road crews doesn’t get any easier.
“Winter brings a whole host of different challenges. It’s only a year since we had major floods, which caused extensive damage to local roads and the state highway network across Marlborough and Tasman. While we can’t predict the weather, we must be ready for the problems it may bring.
“We have already taken some steps here. Extra resilience was built into State Highway 6 between Hira and the Rai Valley when the highway was closed for repairs at the end of 2022,” he says.
This saw 30 new and larger culverts installed, and Owen says they’ve already shown their worth during heavy rain this year.
“The road is in a much better position to cope with bad weather than it used to be,” he says.
Summer state highway maintenance:
Wellington/Wairarapa
- Rehabilitation (full road rebuild) – 1.1 lane km.
- Resurfacing (replacing asphalt) – 22.2 lane km.
- Chipsealing – 17.8 lane km.
- SCRIM resealing (improves skid resistance) – 4.6 lane km.
- Signs replaced – 214.
- Barriers replaced/repaired – 5.3 lane km.
(Figures exclude SH1 Transmission Gully as this is managed under a PPP)
Marlborough and Nelson/Tasman
- Rehabilitation (full road rebuild) – 4.4 lane km.
- Resurfacing (replacing asphalt) – 7.6 lane km.
- Chipsealing – 159.5 lane km.
- SCRIM resealing (improves skid resistance) – 3.1 lane km.
- Signs replaced – 506.
- Barriers replaced/repaired – 59.47 lane km.
