No quick fix for Northland's roads says NTA

5 Apr, 2023

Despite the best efforts of council staff and roading crews, Northland Transportation Alliance (NTA) is warning there is no quick fix for many of Northland’s roads damaged in recent extreme weather events.

Some repairs are likely to take around two years to complete and that timeframe could be extended if Northland is hit by more adverse weather. That is because of compounding damage to some sites, meaning more cost and time involved to complete repairs.

“There is also a need to meet funding requirements, including in-depth geotechnical investigation and design aspects,” says NTA maintenance and operations manager Bernard Petersen.

Intense rainfall which resulted in Northland’s wettest winter in 2022, followed by the region’s wettest summer on record, has caused significant damage to the local (council) roading network NTA is responsible for maintaining.

Mr Petersen says while efforts to repair roads have been hampered by constant soil movement, the settled weather of late is helpful.

“Now the weather has stabilised somewhat our crews are out there working on permanent repairs after the initial focus on just getting roads open and functioning well enough to allow traffic through,” says Mr Petersen.

“In the short term our crews are out there focussing on the hundreds of smaller repairs needed on our roads in Whangarei, Kaipara and Far North Districts. Provided the weather remains settled most of this work will be tackled by the end of June and this work includes low risk slip repairs that don’t require geotechnical assessments.

“It has been really frustrating for our crews because we just want to sort out our roads but with geotechnical monitoring showing ongoing movement of under-slips and over-slips in some cases, we simply can’t start, or fully complete, repairs while the land is unstable and that’s why seven rural roads remain closed. Five of those roads are in Whangarei District and two in Kaipara.

Northland’s roads are clearly fragile and the safety of staff remains a priority, as road works are carried out, says Mr Petersen.

“Before Cyclone Gabrielle there were 1126 recorded and monitored under-slips across 1110km or a quarter of our network. Identification, recording and monitoring of the balance of the network is a slow ongoing process – based upon funding availability. That is an average of one slip per kilometre. Cyclone Gabrielle and the extreme Mangawhai storm resulted in 302 over-slips and 343 under-slips (84 new under slip sites not previously recorded in our database).

“The estimated repair cost for 116 of these slip sites alone is over $36m so we are talking big money and a massive amount of work and that is just the start. That means work is ongoing to estimate the complete repair and recovery costs.”

“Most of the jobs we are currently working on involve repair costs of less than $100k but there are several complex sites where the repairs will cost millions of dollars to complete over the next couple of years.

“The other issue we are contending with is the hammering our Mangamuka and Brynderwyns detour roads are taking with the increased traffic volumes. That makes roading repairs extra challenging and is also cause for concern due to increased safety risk for road users and our roading crews.

Mr Petersen says as announced last week, an estimated $250m is needed to make a significant step forward in repairing and improving the safety and resilience of Northland’s local roading network.

“While repairing storm damage is a priority, it is important that ongoing general maintenance continues on other roads, so they don’t deteriorate over time.”

“Now the weather has stabilised somewhat our crews are out there working on permanent repairs after the initial focus on just getting roads open…”

- Bernard Petersen, NTA

Northland’s roads are clearly fragile says NTA maintenance and operations manager Bernard Petersen. PHOTO/SUPPLIED