Land of potholes: State highways described as being in shocking condition

Several sections of the country’s state highways have been described as being in shocking condition, with some mayors calling for urgent upgrades as holidaymakers travel through their districts.

The Automobile Association (AA) says State Highway 1 is the poor “shop window” of a network riddled with potholes and road surface issues.

It comes as the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi embarks on what it says is its biggest summer road works programme in years, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Taupō mayor David Trewavas said his district’s main thoroughfare, SH1, was inadequate for such a popular holiday destination.

“Certainly I believe between Taupō and Tokoroa it’s just nowhere near the standard it should be.

“They are trying their best to maintain it or improve it, but SH1 is the pre-eminent highway in New Zealand, and it’s not good enough.”

Trewavas said one section between Maroa - about 30km north of Taupō - and Tokoroa had become a “laughing stock” due to the number of potholes that keep appearing.

He said there were also several pinch points between Taupō and Tūrangi, at Bulli Point and Jellicoe Point, where trucks cannot pass each other - and this can lead to lengthy delays.

Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the condition of SH5 between Napier and Taupō was dire, even after recent maintenance work.

She was concerned about the large number of potholes as high numbers of visitors travelled the road this summer.

“You could run off the road - I mean, they are dangerous. We certainly want to see a maintenance plan and we would like to see contractors up there each day managing these potholes to make sure the road is safe.”

Bumpy roads

Several travellers RNZ spoke to as they stopped in Wellington agreed some roads were in a poor state.

Pierre Le Coq had been road-tripping in his campervan between Dunedin, Hastings, Mount Maunganui and New Plymouth. He said he was disappointed by the condition of the state highways.

“The roads are horrendous. It’s just patches on patches - there’s no new roads, they’re just a road of patches. [It’s] very bumpy in the camper, very bumpy and rattly.”

NZTA said it was doing work on more than 2500km of road as part of its summer maintenance programme, which will run until late March, costing about $500 million.

It said parts of SH1 from Tūrangi along the lake had a significant amount of renewal scheduled, and that a safety improvement project on the Maroa section had sealing work scheduled for February and March this year.

Parts of SH5 would have resealing work, after being heavily damaged in the 2023 cyclones - making the Napier side fragile and vulnerable to potholes.

“The weather and the demands on those parts of the network have been really quite hard this last two or three years. What we’ve got to now with the investment we have is get out there, get those renewals under way, and get the network back into a condition that we’d all love to see.”

The AA said the country’s state highway network has been underfunded for a decade. Spokesman Martin Glynn said a boost in maintenance funding from the previous government was a good sign, as was the $500 million pothole repair fund the National Party promised in the election.

But it was not enough to ensure lasting improvements.

“There’s equally big calls for more investment in renewals, and resurfacing, [and] the base foundation of many of our roads. The problem has been years in the making and will take years to fix.”

The AA said it wanted to see the Government commit to a substantial investment in state highways when it puts out its three-year National Land Transport Programme later in the year.