No major work scheduled for ‘slippery as hell’ piece of Okoia road until summer

This stretch of No 3 Line in Okoia has been under a temporary speed limit at various times since 2019, with police saying people are getting complacent about the speed limit. Photo / Finn Williams

A stretch of No. 3 Line in Okoia, near Whanganui which has been under temporary speed limits since 2019 is not scheduled for repairs until summer due to groundwater issues.

Whanganui District Council transportation manager Damien Wood said the site near the Gordon Park Scenic Reserve was under a temporary 30km/h speed limit due to bitumen flushing.

This occurs when the bitumen binder rises to the top of the sealed surface, making it slippery.

The current speed limit has been in place this year but the site has had other temporary measures applied at various times since 2019.

Various repairs to the road have also been carried out since 2019 but the bitumen flushing has continued to occur due to groundwater issues.

The groundwater will need to be addressed to enable a successful long-term repair with the weather needing to be warm and dry to fix the road.

“An area-wide pavement treatment is scheduled for the 2023/24 summer period to provide a long-term solution,” Wood said.

“This will involve a complete rehabilitation of the existing road.”

On June 1 a small truck travelling from Palmerston North slid off a loose patch of road and rolled.

While responding to the incident, Whanganui police Sergeant Colin Wright said locals in the area told him about their concerns with the road and with how long the signs had been in place.

Police had to talk to multiple motorists who’d ignored the speed limit, and Wright said he would take his concerns to the council.

A truck slid and rolled in the area of the temporary speed limit on June 1. Photo / Bevan Conley

Wood said the speed management measures would be reviewed to make sure vehicles were travelling through the site at a safe speed.

“Road users are reminded that temporary speed limits are set to ensure the safe use of the road and should be followed at all times.”

Okoia resident Natasha Edmonds said the day before the truck incident she’d spoken to her daughter-in-law about making sure to stay safe after having similar issues.

“I noticed I kind of slid a little bit when I went around the corner where the accident actually happened.”

“I just said to her just make sure you go slow when you go around those corners because you kind of don’t realise,” she said.

She said until then it had been confusing as to why the speed limit was in place on the road but driving over it in the wet had revealed just how little grip there was.

This feeling of confusion had been carried by other motorists in the area.

“It’s just been 30km/h for so long and I guess people are kind of like, why? And now they’re probably thinking, okay that’s probably why,” she said.

Motorist Tony Greig rides over the stretch of road often on his motorbike and said parts of the road were like ice in the rain.

“When it’s wet it’s like ice, there’s no traction whatsoever and it’s slippery as hell,” he said.

He said even in a car it was slippery, but it was only a matter of time until someone had an accident riding through the area on a bike.

“You could be just creeping along there on a bike and if you’ve got the wrong angle [or] you’re leaned over too much you’ll just be off on your arse.”

He had a long-standing issue with the road and three years ago contacted the council with similar concerns.

At the time the council did lay some chip down on patches at the road, but it was only a temporary fix.

Now he said the road was in a worse condition than it was three years ago.

“There’s actually parts where you can see the shell rock underneath it.”

At this stage, he said the road needed to be completely dug out and resealed due to the state it was in.