Samantha Motion: Ironic twist in preponderance of potholes in our paved paradise

A pothole takes up half the lane on State Highway 30. Photo / Supplied

Bump, thump, slump
Dip, dodge, swerve, rattled nerves
Crunch, scrape, crack.

The experience of driving on the Bay of Plenty's roads this winter was positively poetic. Provided the poem was, like the one above, bad.

There have been potholes all over our provincial paradise. Local roads, state highways, rural roads: none are spared the scouring, hollowing forces.

Lumpily patched and some sinking again almost as soon as they're filled - no doubt as frustrating for those doing the filling as those of us ducking and weaving at the wheel.

I was shocked by the state of Papamoa Beach Road on a recent drive. I thought the chip seal hated by so many residents of the stretch was supposed to be hardy but you would not have known it looking at the Swiss cheese areas of road on that day.

At least I did not suffer the fate of Rotorua's Delain Morrison who, faced with the choice of causing a head-on smash or hitting a crippling hole in State Highway 30, chose the latter and paid the price of a buckled wheel rim.

He has had no luck in his quest for compensation but readers from across New Zealand wrote after he shared his story to talk about their "virtually unavoidable", reappearing, tyre-ruinous, "so big my car just about disappeared" potholes.

A Far North resident recently became so fed up with the state of her rural roads, she called on the mayor to lend her his car.

An Automobile Association representative told AM it was hearing from motorists that the roads had never been so bad.

Waka Kotahi Bay of Plenty told the Rotorua Daily Post there had been a significant increase in potholes across the country compared to the past three years.

In the Bay of Plenty specifically, 3713 repairs were carried out in the year to June, compared to totals in the 3200-3300 range previously.

The agency said it was due to the current network conditions - which sounds to me like the results of underinvestment in maintenance - and a wet winter.

Rotorua Lakes Council also points to the weather as the reason for an uptick in potholes on local roads. These generally start with water seeping into cracks in the road.

Days of rain can also make it harder to make repairs to potholes that will last.

"Rainfall events are becoming more frequent and more severe and generally, we can expect more road damage during winter months when we tend to have more rain," said council infrastructure lead Stavros Michael.

More intense weather? No prizes for guessing what might be driving that.

It is ironic that holes in the roads we build for our gas guzzlers may be worsened by the more extreme weather - including rainfall - wrought by changes to the climate caused by, among other things, tailpipe emissions.

Potholes are a maintenance issue, but a solution that only involves pouring more and more money into fixing them is a bandaid at best.

We can pave paradise (maybe even put up some parking lots) but without meaningful progress to arrest climate change, we can look forward to more lumpy, bumpy and grumpy winters.