Talking Point: Mayor questions when Waka Kotahi will 'take their role seriously'

Speed restrictions have been announced for the Esk River Bridge on State Highway 2, north of Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor

I am incredibly disappointed that once again Waka Kotahi appears to have completely failed in its primary responsibility to maintain a resilient state highway network.

The news that there will be a reduction in speed across the State Highway 2 bridge over the Eskdale River, and potentially even more restrictions including reducing it to one lane and/or lowering weight limits, confirms that its forward planning is woefully lacking.

This bridge is a core part of the vital link between Hawke's Bay and the East Coast.

It is heavily relied on for the movement of heavy freight between the two regions, and to get freight from the East Coast to Napier Port and further on to the rest of New Zealand.

In its press release, the agency seems surprised to note that: "[The 81-year-old bridge] wasn't designed to carry modern day traffic, specifically, the number of heavy vehicles and the weight of these trucks".

It begs the question of why there hasn't been some kind of proactive management work programme undertaken earlier to avoid getting to the point where people in this region are once again facing time and cost disruptions on one of our state highways?

Waka Kotahi gives no time frame on the speed restriction but with, "design options for repair and further investigations" to come, as well as the actual physical works, it is unlikely to be fast.

Particularly if you take its previous record on state highway upgrades and maintenance in the regions into account.

We are still waiting for repairs to be carried out on the Napier-Taupo Rd (State Highway 5), where it has been reduced to one lane at Te Haroto since the start of July, due to a washout.

And we are still waiting on any form of a plan from Waka Kotahi on their planned investment for SH5 to address the safety concerns that led to the speed reduction to 80km for the majority of the journey.

Waka Kotahi has itself admitted that SH5 is well below highway standard.

When the government brought in new restrictions around vehicle weights and dimensions for bridges in 2017, Hastings District Council committed $9.9m over seven years to strengthen 22 bridges on our roading network in our 2018-28 Long Term Plan to ensure our bridges met the new specifications.

We did this because we knew that these bridges were on key routes needed to meet our district's freight demands, necessary to support economic productivity and growth in the region.

In line with our management plan, as of the end of last year we had strengthened seven bridges, replaced one, and have many others in various phases of evaluations, investigations, or designs for upgrades.

We took ownership of what was required on our network, and it is disappointing that yet again we don't seem to see the same commitment from Waka Kotahi on the network they are responsible for.

This latest news reinforces our lack of confidence in Waka Kotahi.

What I want to know is: When will Waka Kotahi take their role seriously, and at what point will Government insist that it meets its obligations to (as Waka Kotahi says on its website) "produce the most efficient, safe, effective and enduring solutions".

Sandra Hazlehurst is Hastings mayor