Newly-resurfaced road to Waimarama already crumbling away

Hastings District Council has called for a review after sections of the newly resurfaced Waimarama Rd are already crumbling and breaking away.

The roadworks took a number of weeks and were completed in September.

When Hawke's Bay Today contacted the contractor, Russell Roads, a spokesman said the company had no comment as the council dealt with the road.

Hastings District councillor Bayden Barber, who was previously a member of the Rural Community Board, voiced his concerns at the state of the road at his last meeting on September 5.

"You could see that the quality was inadequate when they were laying the road, as corrugation was already appearing on the corners. It is cutting up bad already and the job was only completed in September," Mr Barber said.

Mr Barber said when he contacted the roading manager at the council he told him they had commissioned the work under "safety concerns", which sat outside his responsibilities of normal roading maintenance.

"He said it did not come under their current contractors, so I am assuming a different department may have been involved in the contracting for the job," Mr Barber said.

Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule agreed that the state of the road was not good enough so initiated a review three weeks ago.

"It is well below the level of standard that we find acceptable. We have brought someone in from outside council who is talking with engineers, contractors and everyone involved so it does not happen again."

Mr Yule said the draft report would be finalised at the Rural Community Board meeting on December, 3.

"It will look at the quality of work, who's responsible, how it will be remediated and how much it will cost."

Waimarama resident Colin Rafferty said in a letter to the editor on October 29 that the two worst affected areas were on the corner off the Tukituki Bridge heading west and the stretch of road 4km past the Ocean Beach turnoff.

"The potholes and the amount of reworking on this small piece of roadworks has been laughable. The common denominator in both these projects has been the contractor," Mr Rafferty said.

Mr Barber said HDC need to take responsibility for those it contracts to upgrade the district's infrastructure.

"I will be taking a keen interest to ensure that local ratepayers are getting value for money and that there are no shortcuts on quality control."