Temporary repairs made to sections of Okoia road following safety concerns

Roading contractors have added new road surfaces to parts of No. 3 Line in Okoia. Photo / Bevan Conley

Temporary repairs have been made to a section of No. 3 Line in Okoia following a recent accident and safety concerns raised by a police officer.

The repairs involved cement stabilisation, where the soil under the road was injected and mixed with cement, and sealing, Whanganui District Council transportation manager Damien Wood said.

The issues with the road came from groundwater causing bitumen flushing, where the bitumen binder rose to the top of the road, making it slippery.

Wood said stabilisation was the most efficient way to deal with the issue at this point.

“We will continue to monitor this stretch,” he said.

Last week the Chronicle reported the road being under temporary speed limits since 2019, with no major repairs scheduled until the summer of 2023/24.

The road was also temporarily repaired in 2019, but the groundwater issues caused the bitumen flushing to persist.

Motorists in the area said people had become complacent towards the speed limits due to them existing for so long.

They said it was in a worse state of repair than it had been in 2019 and described driving over parts of the road in the rain as like driving on ice.

On June 1, a small truck travelling from Palmerston North rolled after it slid off the wet road, with the driver being uninjured.

While attending to the scene, Whanganui Police constable Colin Wright said police had to talk to multiple motorists who’d ignored the speed limit and that he would be taking his concerns to the council.

With the temporary repairs completed, a temporary 30 km/h speed limit was still in place on the road.

Wood said a long-term solution to addressing the groundwater issues was still scheduled for summer 2023/24 when the weather was suitable for repairs to take place.

“At that point, drainage will be improved, weak areas will be excavated and filled in and the road will be scarified to remove ruts and bumps.”

After this, new roading material, seal coat and road markings would be added.

The new roading material would be deeper, to increase the strength of the road.