A member of the public reported the hole at Pendarves, southeast of Rakaia, to the Ashburton District Council on April 2 via its Snap Send Solve phone app.
At 1.8m long and several centimetres deep, the pothole can be found next to several smaller potholes on Chertsey Kyle Rd.
The area is adjacent to a farmer’s shingle driveway, and covered in shingle from both the broken road and the driveway.
The area has no warning signage or road cones. As such it presented a danger to motorists, forcing them to slow down or drive around the area.
Council group manager infrastructure and open spaces Neil McCann said the Snap Send Solve report was from a member of the public.
‘‘This pothole has been patched a number of times over the past year following routine inspections of the road, by road maintenance staff.
‘‘This pothole needs to be dugout to be repaired properly as the cold mix patching will only hold it until we can get it programmed for permanent dig out repair,’’ McCann said.
While it was the district council’s responsibility to maintain the road and make sure potholes do not occur, farmers and other property owners had a responsibility to ensure their business operations did not cause a safety issue.
‘‘If gravel is spilling out onto the road due to their operation, they should sweep this off the road to keep other road users safe,’’ McCann said.
The district council had not asked the property owner in this case to keep shingle off the road.
While it was the district council’s policy that all driveway accesses to sealed roads must be sealed, it could only enforce this in new developments.
‘‘So we ask that property owners be proactive and think about the safety of other road users and get their crossing sealed if they are not already.’’
The farmer, who did not want to be named, said the pothole and deteriorated road was ‘‘dangerous’’.
He said ‘‘I suppose we could’’ when asked if he should sweep shingle off the road. But not all the shingle was from the driveway, much of it was from the road.
He said the district council had some years ago said it would retarseal the whole road.
At the time the district council had asked the farm if it would like the driveway entrance tarsealed at the same time, in an arrangement where the district council would fund half the resealing cost.
‘‘But they have never come to do it,’’ he said.
