Rural Gisborne residents say “hundreds” of crater-sized potholes are causing vehicles and trucks to swerve across the centre line of what they’ve dubbed the “suicide road”.
Tiniroto Rd, which runs from the Wairoa boundary into the Gisborne region, serves as an alternative route to State Highway 2 to Wairoa. About 50km of road goes through the Gisborne district.
However, Tiniroto Community Association spokeswoman Kirsty Playle said there was “no way” the Gisborne District Council could allow Tiniroto Rd to be the back-up option if SH2 closed.
“There would be a serious crash ... that’s what we keep trying to drum into them ... we are completely landlocked.”
Playle said there had been an average of three to four near-misses a week since the community started tracking events in January and sending the council the reports and dashcam footage.
A farmer spoken to by Local Democracy Reporting had resorted to filling the holes near his home with gravel “to take the danger out”, as he said potholes were left for months until they became craters.
Gisborne District Council acknowledged Tiniroto Rd was “under significant pressure” and said it had been carrying out ongoing recovery and maintenance work.
However, permanent resurfacing and pavement upgrades were put on hold until the majority of the cyclone recovery work and the Hangaroa bypass construction were complete.
This was because heavy traffic and construction activity would damage new surfaces and could require the work to be redone at additional cost, a spokesman said.
Speaking with Local Democracy Reporting, Playle said residents were calling the route “suicide road”.
There were “hundreds” of potholes, and parts of the road were missing near the Wairoa boundary.
“It’s not even potholes anymore ... It’s like clay underneath.”
Playle said the road served around 250 Tiniroto residents and thousands of drivers, including heavy-vehicle traffic.
“We’ve got copious amounts of logging trucks and heavy trucks on our road, which have to obviously dodge the potholes, so everyone’s not even on the safe side of the road.”
Wider communities in the area were advocating to get the road fixed to a safe standard.
There was concern the road was not going to hold through the winter period.
“It’s not just a ‘go and put some asphalt in them’ anymore. It’s a completely rehab job.”
Alex Campbell, farm manager of Awapapa Station, said potholes were left for months, until they became craters.
He has lived in the area for about 60 years and said the road had never been this bad.
“Craters will buckle rims. They’ll rip suspension, bend axles, which has happened to us and many others I know.
“If there was a death due to a crater ... who’s responsible?”
Roadworks were underway on the stretch of road closer to Gisborne heading towards Wairoa, but waiting for the roadworks to reach their section was like a “snail race”.
Campbell said he and wife Megan sometimes grabbed a tractor and shovel to fill the holes on the road near their home with gravel “to take the danger out”.
It took them less than an hour to fill the potholes on a stretch of around 1km, he said.
“The simplicity of alleviating the situation until major repairs can be completed is filling the craters with common road-binding material with something as simple as a shovel.”
Council journeys infrastructure manager Dave Hadfield on Thursday said the road was “under significant pressure”, with deterioration happening “faster than we would like”.
“We recognise residents want to see issues addressed as early as possible and before they become more serious.”
Sections of Tiniroto Rd were damaged significantly, and longer-term road surface repairs were needed, he said.
Since Cyclone Gabrielle, the council had been doing ongoing recovery and maintenance works and was working with NZ Transport Agency on funding support and “longer-term resilience of the corridor”.
The ongoing work included slip and dropout repairs, drainage improvements, pothole assessments and urgent repairs, rehabilitation work in some sections, and chip resealing in programmed areas.
Following Cyclone Gabrielle’s destruction of the Hangaroa bluffs, $45 million in government funding was granted to build a new section of Tiniroto Rd to bypass the bluffs, which is expected to be completed by late 2027.
The project includes 2km of new road through farmland, 20 new culverts and two new three-span bridges.
Hadfield said permanent resurfacing and pavement upgrades were put on hold until the majority of the recovery and bypass construction was completed.
This was because heavy traffic and construction activity could damage new surfaces and require the work to be redone at additional cost.
“Council’s approach is staged. In the short term, crews are continuing monthly pothole assessments and urgent repairs, along with other targeted maintenance, to keep the road open and manage the highest-risk areas.”
The funding was prioritised across the wider network, including other key routes.
The council also used safety measures such as a 30km/h speed restriction in the bluffs area and traffic management through the one-way section near the dropout south of Doneraille Park.
Hadfield said additional signage would also be installed to help further manage safety concerns.
The total expenditure for cyclone recovery slips and dropouts was $3m, and the yearly maintenance costs had been $2.4m in 2023-24, $1.5m in 2024-25 and $2m year to date (2025-26).
The council said Tiniroto Rd was an important rural and resilience route, especially when SH2 is disrupted.
“[It] continues to face pressure from severe weather, difficult terrain, heavy freight movements and deferred renewals across a constrained funding environment.”
The council was contacted on Tuesday to see if its position had changed.