No 1 Rd residents say potholes making road dangerous, fatal accident predicted

A No 1 Rd resident says pothole repairs aren't lasting so are a waste of money.

Residents are predicting a fatality if nothing is done about the condition of the road surface on No 1 Rd.

The issue was raised at last week’s Maketū-Te Puke ward forum where Mary van Gog, who has lived on the road for nine years, was one of a number of people to speak.

She repeated her concerns to the Bay of Plenty Times last week, expressing concern over the number of potholes on the “dangerous” first two kilometres of the road and the speed at which some cars travel.

Mary said, in her view, conditions were “very unsafe” given the number of vehicles travelling on the road daily. “People who live here have just had enough now. This bottom bit is particularly bad - it’s very unsafe. You get a dark, wet night, [and] you can’t see how dangerous the road is.”

Mary estimated there were between 20 and 30 potholes on No 1 Rd that had been repaired and about five that had not. But large “hunks” of bitumen sometimes came out of potholes after heavy rainfall, she said.

Mary said the potholes had not caused any damage to her car. She put this down to driving 30km/h on the section that had a 50km/h speed limit.

But this was not the case for all drivers, she said.

In her opinion: “Somebody will get killed, somebody will hit one of those lumps [when] they’re speeding and, you know, come off the road or into oncoming traffic.”

At last week’s meeting, fellow resident Kylie Griffin said there were “endless potholes” opening up on the road, faster than they could be repaired. To avoid them and the edge of the road, which was also in poor condition, cars were being driven in the middle of the road, risking colliding with oncoming vehicles.

Kylie said repairs were not lasting and so money spent on repairs was wasted.

She said residents wanted the road surface to be completely remade.

Councillor Richard Crawford said the condition of the road was very much “on the council’s radar” and that this year’s bad weather had put the whole roading programme behind schedule.

Councillor Andy Wichers said he was well aware of the issues and was trying to arrange a meeting between Kylie, other residents and council staff.

On Tuesday, Kylie said Monday’s heavy rain had opened up more potholes.

She says following last week’s meeting, there was a flurry of activity on the road.

“The day after the meeting they came up and there were lots of new markings all the way up the road with all the stuff that needed repairing and the next day the crew turned up, started at the bottom, did two and we thought they were going to get them all done but that was it.”

Contacted on Tuesday, Andy said he was still trying to arrange a meeting and was awaiting a date.

On Thursday, May 18, the Western Bay of Plenty District Council received 22 reports of potholes following heavy rain, with multiple potholes on Welcome Bay Rd, Waihī Beach Rd and Te Puke’s No 1 and No 3 Roads.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council senior transportation engineer Calum McLean told the Bay of Plenty Times last week these potholes were “among the list of roading issues” that had surfaced last month.

“We’ve experienced several bouts of heavy rain this year and know the widespread damage it can do to our roading network.”

Motorists could report potholes to the council on 0800 WBOPDC (0800 926 732), he said.