1 April 2022
Media: Local Focus (NZ Herald video reporting)
Topic: Planned resealing of Goudies Road in Reporoa
Enquiry
Local Focus reporter asked to interview someone from RLC regarding the planned resealing of Goudies Road in Reporoa.
This road is used for an annual land speed event and the organisers want it sealed with asphalt rather than chip seal which they say is not suitable for their event and which they claim would potentially be ripped up by heavy traffic like stock trucks and milk tankers.
Reporter sought general information about when resealing was planned, what type of material would be used and why the work was necessary.
She said the following questions would also be asked as part of the video interview:
- Has the council looked at alternative resealing methods, other than chip seal?
- What is wrong with Goudies Road – is there an Opus report?
- Traffic engineers and farmers said each stakeholder’s/farmer’s driveways onto Goudies road needs to be upgraded and level lifted and sealed of the 3 tonne tractors, stock trucks and milk tankers will turn and rip the new chip seal up. There is at least 4 of these driveways on Goudies Road. What is councils solution to that?
Response
Infrastructure & Environmental Solutions DCE Stavros Michael was interviewed on camera. He covered the following points:
The resealing of Goudies Road was originally planned for the summer of 2021/22, but was pushed out until early next year due to budget constraints.
We have scheduled the resealing work for after Landspeed NZ Association has held its next event, in February 2023.
In 2021 the cost of asphalt was estimate to be around $1.2 milllion. The cost of chip sealing was estimated to be less than $200,000.
The funding for resealing Goudies Road does not allow for Council to spend an extra $1 million on asphalt instead of chip seal.
Waka Kotahi [which subsidises local roadoworks] would not agree to funding assistance for an extra $1m to asphalt the road, and we don’t think this additional $1 million should fall on the ratepayers.
Council gave residents 3 years notice (about the resealing with chip seal), to find alternative funding or raise the money if they wanted ashphalt instead of chip seal because we don’t think the cost for this should fall on the ratepayers.
Goudies Road was last sealed in October 2007 – just over 14 years ago.
The average life expectancy of the road is around 15 years. The road is up for resurfacing to ensure it remains safe for road users.
Now that the road is coming to the end of its life, there is increasing risk of water entering the surface of the road and making its way into the foundations, which would make it less structurally sound or safe, and more expensive to re-seal.
Resealing with chip seal will change the height of the road by less than 10mm, which is not a problem for those large, heavy vehicles. Council owns some 1000kms of roads.
Chip seal is used for resealing 90% of roads, 75% of these are rural roads in the Rotorua district.
Private driveways are owned and maintained by the property owner.
These chip sealed roads carry similar loads and provide connection to farms and properties in the rural areas, and there is nothing to suggest that these roads perform poorly under these circumstances.