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Home / New Zealand

No, we've had enough, say angry residents

Wairarapa Times-Age
26 Mar, 2009 04:00 AM3 mins to read

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When the chips are down Bev Wiffen is quite happy, it's when they are flying that she and many other Wairarapa drivers get upset.
Roadworks from Mt Bruce to Featherston are being blamed for a rash of broken and chipped windscreens.
Drivers, fed up with paying for replacement screens or tapping their
insurance companies to do so, are asking questions of roading contractors Fulton Hogan. They want to know whether surplus chips are being swept off or if larger than normal metal is being used that is not settling down properly.
Mrs Wiffen's car windscreen was chipped while negotiating the new passing lane just south of Carterton while heading home to Featherston and her husband Royce has had to replace a screen in his vehicle from the same cause.
To rub salt into the wound, Mrs Wiffen's windscreen had not long been replaced, the former one being shattered by stone chips at a roadworks site in Wairarapa.
She claims contractors are failing to properly sweep excess chips from the road surface after re-sealing work and are also too quick to reinstate the open-road speed limit of 100km/h after new seal is laid.
"You want to see the road where work has been done, there are hundreds of loose stones and they are flying everywhere.
"The chip I got this time is only a small one and I am going to have to live with it rather than replace the windscreen but it really annoys me."
Mrs Wiffen said every time she gets in the car her eye will automatically be drawn to the damaged screen.
Royce Wiffen tried to get his smashed windscreen replaced but discovered auto glass repairers in Wairarapa were so busy taking care of other drivers' damaged screens he could not get it done for over a week.
"I ended up having to go over the hill to have it replaced."
The Featherston couple are backed up in their claims by Mt Bruce agricultural contractor Kevin Thompson.
He said something has to be done to stop the flying chips from doing further damage.
He has had several windscreens replaced and the latest damage to his work vehicle has left the screen with multiple chips and two cracks.
"I suspect the chip being used is not the right size but regardless of the cause it can't be allowed to continue."
Mr Thompson said broken and chipped windscreens were the most dramatic damage but in some respects were the thin end of the wedge. "Just imagine what is happening to the paintwork on vehicles."
Windscreen repair firms in Wairarapa have confirmed they are flat-out replacing and repairing screens.
Peter Ewen, owner of Ewen Glass, said the workload is much heavier than this time last year.
He said he had put on an extra staff member in December, bringing the total to four employees catering for auto glass repairs.
The firm has a backlog of about 10 days for getting screens repaired.
Wairarapa Automobile Association chairman Handley Thomson said whereas AA doesn't normally field complaints about road chip damage it is nevertheless a motoring matter and a safety issue as well. "I am quite happy to say it isn't right that this should be happening and I am quite prepared to speak to those doing the roadworks on behalf of our members."
The generally accepted protocol for new seal is for the carriageway to be swept on completion and before roadmarkings being painted on, then for at least one further sweeping to be done.

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