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Phil T's avatar

Highways across the south are gradually deteriorating more because of poor maintenance than funding issues. If a repair isn't done properly money is wasted and you don't have to look far to see that. North Road north of the Bainfield lights was patched up last year and every patch has now failed. The contractors ignore the failures because doing another repair in less than 12 months would raise eyebrows so they get worse and worse. The state of Bluff Road would have been unacceptable back in the days of the MOW just because of the amount of water it holds on the surface during wet weather.

Its the old adage if you maintain something properly in the end you save money. If you wait till it needs fixed it will always turn out more expensive.

The people of the old National Roads Board who toured NZ's highways on a bi annual basis back in the MOW days would be turning in their graves at just how far standards have slipped.

Anyone who disagrees should just drive along North Road and Dee St and think is this acceptable. The east lane of Dee St from Gala St is atrocious but the council seemed to have deemed it acceptable for the two years since it was reinstated after major works.

I don't think there is a roading contractor in the south that can actually repair or reinstate a road surface after road works. And council staff who are meant to be looking after the infrastructure on behalf of the ratepayers seem to be happy to sign off shoddy repairs rather than think about at least maintaining a standard that was there prior to the works taking place.

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alan mitchell's avatar

Successive Invercargill based Members of Parliament completely ignore local issues. S.H. 1 between Invercargill and Bluff is a disgrace and the volume of heavy traffic is increasing every year. Driving on this road in wet weather is dangerous with large lorries throwing up water and making for poor visibility.

Come on local M.P.'s, get off your backsides and start advocating for your constituents.

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Matt Couldrey's avatar

Maybe if more of the goods went via train instead of trucks - the road wouldn’t wear so much 🙄

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