Contractors work to fix road seal on State Highway 50

Breakwater Rd undergoes road seal repairs. Photo / Paul Taylor

Contractors will be bearing the cost of fixing the road seal on State Highway 50 at the Ahuriri Bypass to Napier Port.

The repair work, which was scheduled to be completed on Thursday with the possibility of extending to Friday, did not cost Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency anything.

State Highway 50 has been undergoing resealing works over the past few months as part of essential maintenance.

"Unfortunately the new road seal has not been successful and we have noticed chip coming off the seal, so our contractors will be heading back to fix it," regional transport systems manager Oliver Postings said.

"It appears the chip is not sticking to the bitumen as well as it should, so contractors will need to do some work to stop the chip from coming loose. We are currently managing all the loose chip with a sucker truck until the crew begins work tomorrow to fix the seal."

A full signposted detour was in place while the repair work was under way.

"We apologise to motorists for this inconvenience. We know it's not ideal, but we'll be working as quickly as we can to fix the issue," Postings said.

Contractors will return to the site within the next month to complete the previously-planned resealing works, which will involve laying open-graded porous asphalt ) as the final coat and will take up to four days.

Waka Kotahi NZTA have been undertaking planned road surface resealing work on SH50 as part of essential maintenance for the past few weeks.

The agency will continue with the previously planned resealing work within the next month (programmed to avoid Napier Port's peak season).