Residents meet as Cames Road upgrade frustration grows

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BY JULIA WADE

3 Oct, 2022

 

Dusty metal roads with ruts and potholes can be the downside of living in the scenic countryside with the hope for smooth tar-seal unfortunately an unaffordable ideal.

Locals of one such road, the unofficial but often-used bypass route Cames Road, have been waiting for a safer drive for many years and gathered recently to discuss the upgrading of their road.

Initiated and hosted by Cames resident of six years, Coast-to-Coast Health Care physician, Dr Nima Maleki and his family, a large neighbourhood crowd of around 40 responded to his invite including Kaipara District Council (KDC) Mangawhai/Kaiwaka ward election candidates Misty Sansom, Dennis Emsley and Rachael Williams.

Dr Maleki says the latest information he received from Northland Transport Alliance (NTA), the authority charged with the maintenance of local roads, showed Cames Road will be consulted and planned for in the 2024-27 Long Term Plan ‘which will take another ten years, that’s not good enough’.

“This is long overdue. Ten years ago they said they were going to fix Cames, five then three years ago they said the same thing, now they say they’re going to fix it in 2024-27. Ten years is enough for the improvements to be on the Long-Term Plan, we should fight for that,” he says. “I know there’s been restrictions and trouble with the economy, but we need to raise our voices and get this on the agenda so everybody can see what we are driving on and living along.”

A part-metal, part-sealed road which winds over a rural ridgeline with narrow one-way strips and low-visibility corners, Cames Road is an alternative thoroughfare into Mangawhai Village, connecting Mangawhai Road with Mangawhai/Kaiwaka Road via Lawrence Road. The road made news in 2019 when the Insley Street Bridge (Tomorata Bridge) was deemed unsafe and had to go under repair, effectively cutting off one of the main artery routes into Mangawhai and resulting in an increase of large trucks using Cames Road as a detour after the bridge was closed temporarily to heavy vehicles. Liability for the roading maintenance is split between Kaipara and Auckland Council.

 

Same concerns
The concerns of Cames Road residents remain the same as the frustrations expressed at a March 2019 meeting regarding the bridge closure, including potential collisions on the high-bridged hills caused by poor visibility and tapered stretches, as well as the ongoing issue of dust clouds created from increased traffic flows. Instigated by Kaipara councillor Peter Wethey, NTA staff and council agreed to establish 50km/h speed signs along Cames Road with 30km/h along narrow sections and police cooperation to monitor and enforce the speed limit, set up road

counters on both entrances to quantify traffic numbers, check the quality of roading aggregate and research the possibility and logistics of widening the road.

However, back to 2022, one local at the recent gathering stated ‘as soon as the bridge was finished and they used our road, that was it’.

The agreed temporary speed restrictions have remained and are still enforced, much to Dr Maleki’s dismay, caught twice on the same day by an undercover officer resulting in one speeding ticket he says was for only five km/h over the 40km/h limit.

Says Dr Maleki: ”I’ve been driving this road for five years and suddenly I’m a criminal due to arbitrary speed restrictions… instead of sealing the road, Kaipara council just reduce speed limits.”

 

Health issues
The physician is also concerned with how the dust from metal roads is affecting the health of locals.

“I’ve got some data on it and I’m going to crunch some numbers and compare to everywhere else, to see how many people who live on metal roads are struggling with asthma and lung conditions.”

Cames Road residents questioned what the roading tax was spent on and if contribution fees from developers was spent on roads, with one local stating ‘why do our cars need a warrant of fitness but our roads don’t?’

When an incident occurs on SH1 and vehicles are diverted through Mangawhai, the traffic ‘can get intense’ when some drivers cut through Cames Road the residents say, and there was also concern that if the Insley Street bridge collapses, ‘we’ll get thousands of cars coming our way’.

However, the road being a thoroughfare is also a leverage point for movement on the issue Dr Maleki says, and has started a petition – ‘Tar-seal our road, save our health’ – to present to KDC.

“Our road is unsafe and not sustainable with dust and increasing traffic with no flood water mitigation in place. There has been a massive influx of residents and subdivisions but the infrastructure has lagged behind this progress. Part of the road lies within Auckland Council boundaries, who are supposed to be maintaining it, but as we’re paying increasing rates to Kaipara council, think the road should be serviced by them,” he says.

“I’m just inviting everybody to talk to one another and make some movement on this issue. I know councillor Jonathan Larsen, and Craig Jepson who is standing for mayor, are supportive and hopefully the councillor candidates who are here today will be encouraging of our efforts.”

 

Candidates respond
All three council election candidates got behind the residents, offering suggestions and ideas to show their support. With so much to fix – the rates, roads, infrastructure – Dennis Emsley says, ‘whoever gets into council has one hell of a job’.

“Maybe there is a more efficient way of doing things… if I get in, I’d like to investigate the outsourcing of roading maintenance through the Northland Transport Alliance, graders are brought in from either Whangarei or Auckland and that costs a whole lot of money. I’d like to ask for a review into what the organisation does and if there is more to gain by bringing it back in-house,” he says. “We have local resources, a number of civil engineers and contractors with machinery who do roading work locally… one Mangawhai Rotarian I know is willing to put up a million bucks to actually buy a grader to work our roads.”

Besides thanking the Maleki family for their ‘incredible food’, Misty Sansom says she freaked out the first time she drove along Cames Road, ‘and I grew up driving on unsealed rural roads’.

“I lived on a farm so are used to it but haven’t experienced something like the condition Cames Road is in. It is a huge problem, realistically Kaipara Council isn’t going to work with Auckland Council to get it fixed, my opinion is this issue needs to go above both councils and straight to NZTA [Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Authority] and have them fully fund the road, if possible as a special project. Because it is a bypass that’s a huge weight to get this road sealed,” she says. “As a councillor, I would support lobbying the transport minister as well to really push it through, to get it done quickly and properly, not ‘let’s just figure this out in ten years’ time’.”

Living 18 years on an unsealed private road, paying for both rates and maintenance, Rachael Williams says she understands how frustrating the issue can be, and agreed with her candidate colleagues’ statements.

“I hear what you’re saying and think you’re doing the right thing as a roading community, having this meeting, making a plan, going to council and above them,” she says. “There are also certain processes you can do through the council as well, to have councillors who will meet with you and then transfer the issue to the council level,” she says. “I hope you can get some action and we can support you.”

 

“Our road is unsafe and not sustainable with dust and increasing traffic with no flood water mitigation in place.

– Dr Nima Maleki

 

Cames Road local Dr Nima Maleki has started a petition to get the attention of Kaipara District Council for what residents believe is a desperately needed upgrade to the thoroughfare road. PHOTO/JULIA WADE

 

Narrow one-way lanes, deep ditches and deterioration make for a tricky drive along the Cames Road bypass. PHOTO/JULIA WADE

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