Fulton Hogan's Australian-built Multipatcher machine at work filling yet another Northland pothole.
Fulton Hogan's Australian-built Multipatcher machine at work filling yet another Northland pothole.
Northland’s battered roads might finally be on the mend, with the transport association reporting thousands of extra pothole repairs since rolling out a high-tech machine – the Multipatcher.
NZ Transport Association Waka Kotahi (NZTA) system manager for Northland, Steve Matene, said the Australian-built machine was a game-changer for theregion’s road maintenance.
The Multipatcher has been used by NZTA contractors Fulton Hogan on about 11% of potholes on Northland’s state highways since January last year.
Matene said Northland receives $17.3 million of funding annually for pavement works, of which 30% – or $5.2m - is dedicated to pothole management and preservation of the road surface.
“This targeted funding is sufficient and effective, with 98% of reported potholes fixed within 24 hours in the region.”
Matene said the Multipatcher has had great success in temporarily repairing potholes, edge breaks, crack sealing, stripping, and rutting faults and could do so in as little as a minute using its all-in-one chip sealing operation via a remote-operated boom arm mounted on the front of a roadwork vehicle.
The machine fills defects with emulsified bitumen and aggregate, presses the material in, then seals it with a dry surface layer that can be driven on immediately.
“While these fixes are not permanent, they can last from several months to a few years depending on road conditions and weather, buying us valuable time until full resurfacing can be completed,” Matene said.
Several thousand potholes and many thousands of metres of edge breaks have been repaired to date – equivalent to approximately 427km across the Northland network.
More recently, Fulton Hogan contractors have been using it across Whangārei District Council’s northern network.
The Multipatcher is a cutting-edge machine that repairs road defects more quickly and with greater consistency than traditional methods, NZTA system manager for Northland, Steve Matene says.
The machine is mainly used during the day but can be operated at night if required.
“This is a safer method for workers, keeping them out of live traffic lanes during pavement work,” Matene said.
The machine is also equipped with built-in traffic management boards, further enhancing on-site safety and efficiency.
Estimates in 2023 put the national pothole count at 62,000. People throughout the country complained to authorities and insurance companies about unprecedented road damage to their vehicles and the problem spawned numerous social media groups.
John Baird, who created a Facebook group Northland Potholes, said the pothole situation had noticeably improved, with a marked increase in roadworks over the past summer.
NZTA had “definitely been more responsive” to Northlanders’ complaints about potholes and had “definitely been more active” about fixing them, especially over the summer, Baird said.
“When we started the Facebook page, we’d hear from people with damaged tyres and rims most weeks but we’re not seeing that so much now.”
While NZTA has cyclical roading crews checking the network during winter, Matene said the quickest way to get potholes repaired is to report them by calling 0800 4 HIGHWAYS (0800 44 44 49).
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for theNorthern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast
