Kiri Gillespie: Roadworks are a drag, so is complaining about them

Roadworks on Te Ngae Rd are just one patch in a series of construction around the Bay of Plenty region. Photo / Andrew Warner

OPINION

Another week, another set of roadworks.

The sea of orange cones on grey tarmac seems to be never-ending in the Bay of Plenty.

They are ever-present on State Highway 2 between Katikati and Tauranga, Rotorua's eastern and northern links, and patches of almost every road in between – or so it seems.

Roadworks are noisy, dirty, bumpy and slow. Part of me understands why people get so fired up by them. What a drag.

Last week, motorists travelling through the Ngongotahā roundabout on State Highway 5 described their commute as "Russian roulette" in terms of how long they could expect to be delayed. Some commutes took 15 minutes, other days they took over an hour.

Such uncertainty must be infuriating.

I get it.

I'll be the first to admit impatience at things beyond my control. But the emphasis really sits with those last three words – beyond my control.

Time spent fuming about such construction, especially on social media, serves no purpose other than making that person miserable or angry or a combination of both.

So what can we control? Leaving earlier to allow for delays is the most obvious option. Checking the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi's updates online is another one - they're actually pretty good. Taking an alternative route is also possible for some but probably not everyone (I'm looking at you Katikati commuters).

But failing any of those options one could simply roll with the punches, embrace the disruption and ride through.

Like it or not, roadworks need to happen. And they're not going anywhere.

Sure, feedback to the powers-at-be is important. And sure, I question the logic in setting up roadworks in and out of the city such as SH5/SH36 and SH30 in Rotorua and SH2 both north of Tauranga and at the Bayfair intersection at the same time.

But the Bay of Plenty is booming.

Injecting our infrastructure with much-needed maintenance and upgrades will only benefit the region in the long-run, in my view.

In Rotorua, $14 million is being spent on fixing the Ngongotahā roundabout. In the Western Bay of Plenty, another $146m is being poured into the B2B BayLink project.

I believe such works are a sign of progress.

In years from now, will anyone reach their twilight years and look back on all of the energy spent complaining about roadworks with sentimental pride? Will they say to themselves: "Oh, I wish I spent more time complaining about that time I was 20 minutes late."

I doubt it.

Life's short. Don't waste it complaining about what you can't control.