Concrete the road of the future

Road builders here will soon follow those in Europe and Australia and build concrete roads, says Fletcher Building chief executive Ralph Waters.

"This country will soon wake up to the fact that building in concrete is better and major roads will soon be built in concrete with an asphalt topping," he predicted yesterday.

Fletcher infrastructure chief Mark Binns said all New Zealand roads were built on an aggregate base topped with bitumen.

Concrete roading cost more initially, he said, but it lasted longer and needed fewer repairs so was cheaper in the long-term.

Transit NZ's capital projects manager, Peter Spies, said some concrete roads had been built, particularly round Howick. Transit had no definite plans for new concrete roads.