Residents criticise Tauranga chip seal roads programme

Davenport said the council only sealed halfway up his road because they did not want to damage new seal on a turning circle at the top of the slight incline. Photo / Supplied

More Tauranga residents have come forward about chip seal on their roads, with one calling the programme "totally ad hoc".

This comes after Bethlehem resident John Laing presented a petition to commissioners at Tauranga City Council meeting last week asking for the council to replace the chip seal on their road with tarseal.

Fellow Bethlehem resident Jeff Davenport said half of his street had been chip sealed while the rest was in asphalt. He understood the council's reasons for this relating to the turning point at the top of the road, but said it looked like "a dog's breakfast".

Two other streets in the area remained in asphalt, he said.

Davenport first contacted the council when the sealing had been done after noticing the chip was "really poorly adhering".

Davenport said there were gaps in the chips and the edges by the gutters were messy. Photo / Supplied

"We pointed out the chip was going everywhere. Several of the neighbours have it in through their carpeted garages… stones were getting walked into houses on the bottom of shoes. There was a lot of chip coming off."

Davenport said the asphalt was "perfectly fine".

"All of our concerns is what's going to happen when the heat comes back in. It's just going to lift and be a horrible mess."

Bethlehem resident Dean Preston said the chips had tar on them and were marking the floor when they came in to the house.

"The road didn't need doing in the first place. I don't know why they did it."

Both residents complained to the council about three times. They understood the reasons behind the chip sealing was the cost.

Preston said the chips were leaving tar marks on the carpet in his garage. Photo / Supplied

Tauranga City Council's director of transport Brendan Bisley said it was not always obvious when asphalt had reached the end of its life, but the council did tests every year and knew how roads were deteriorating.

"With asphalt, basically it starts to crack. They're not big massively wide cracks... but often it's just small micro-cracking in the pavement."

When pavement reached the end of its life, "it's got to the point where it's no longer waterproof", he said.

Bisley said over time, water would get through the surface and in to the gravel underneath, which provided the strength of the road.

"The reason we have to renew surfacing every so many years is to make sure we get that waterproofing layer on the surface," he said.

Asphalt was used instead of chip seal where there was a high amount of turning movement because chip seal struggled to hold in those areas, he said.

"You could chip seal them but they're not going to last very long. It's definitely more cost-effective to keep asphalt on those really high volume roads or any cul-de-sac heads where you've got that turning movement."

Tauranga City Council director of transport Brendan Bisley. Photo / George Novak

Bisley said there was a chemical in the bitumen that allowed it to stay fluid and when chip seal was applied, it took a little bit of time for that chemical mix to completely settle down.

"A well-done chip seal shouldn't cause any problems for residents," he said.

In response to the chips ending up in houses, Bisley said this was "unfortunate", "not normal" and "not typical".

Asked about loose chips, Bisley said in the first couple of days after the chip seal was laid, some stones would potentially stick to tyres.

"In terms of people picking it up on their shoes, that shouldn't be a major issue and it's not something we often hear about.

"We do a lot of chip sealing and most streets we never have complaints about."