A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
I first sent in letters on 27/1 and 3/2 regarding the state of roading in the region which resulted in a front-page article over the weekend of 11/2. I wanted to flag the council roading department’s failure to operate effective quality controls when contractors carry out road resurfacing or pothole
repair.
Seddon Crescent was “repaired”, which involved tarmac shovelled into unprepped potholes the day before the article was published. I do not believe repairs were “programmed” to be carried out that week as stated, but rather the work was done then to mitigate any bad publicity for GDC Roading.
I asked a question in my first letter, again in the second. For the third time it was pointed out in the article that, at the time of going to print GDC Roading still had not addressed the fact I was advised by someone in their department that no GDC employees are involved in quality control on new surfacing or pothole repairs, and that there would need to be at least three people engaged in it. The lack of quality control shows. So I ask the question again for the fourth time.
The weather is not the only reason why we are now looking at repairs of tens of millions of dollars to our roading network — it is of course down to multiple factors including slash and land movement, but also that current road building methods are not up to the job. Tar seal in particular is completely second rate and I want to see it phased out — it cannot be considered suitable to carry any volume of traffic, or stand up to adverse weather.
Local government and Waka Kotahi are responsible for huge road rebuild costs by using cheap methods and no or ineffective quality control, and I would urge ratepayers — including our hard-working truckers and haulage operators — to wade in on this and make yourselves heard. LeaderBrand ceo Richard Burke has said the “frail roading” needs “a total rethink”, so is it time for the ratepaying residents of Gisborne to demand better roading? Speak out!
