Pothole damage complaints at record level

In 2022, NZTA Waka Kotahi received 555 complaints about damaged cars due to potholes. Photo: NZ...
In 2022, NZTA Waka Kotahi received 555 complaints about damaged cars due to potholes. Photo: NZ Herald
A record number of complaints about vehicle damage caused by potholes were received last year as Kiwis travelling for the summer indicate that the roads are in the worst state they have ever been.

In the first 10 months of 2022, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency received 555 complaints - this is up by more than 100 compared to the 421 complaints made in 2021.

Following this revelation, national road freight industry group Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand has called on the Government to act with urgency to fund road maintenance.

“The busy summer holiday period has highlighted just what an appalling state much of our roading network is in,” Transporting New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett said.

“It’s not just about road maintenance. We also need the Government to recommit to new roading capacity to ease the strain on our existing network.”

Leggett said the Government was too focused on pinning the blame on others, including previous governments, road users, and the weather, rather than stumping up and making the necessary investment in the network.

“We acknowledge that there are a number of factors beyond the current Government’s control impacting our road network, but the blame game isn’t going to fix the potholes or stop people’s vehicles being damaged.”

National Party transport spokesman Simeon Brown said he has received an increase of people expressing their concerns to him about potholes as Kiwis take to the roads over summer.

“I have been hearing from many Kiwis travelling on our roads over summer, with people telling me that our roads are in the worst state they have ever seen,” he said,

Brown said Labour’s focus should be on fixing the roads rather than light rail in Auckland and reducing speed limits on state highways.

AA spokesman Dylan Thomsen said the quality of New Zealand roads has been an issue for some time but it is only now that we are starting to see the consequences of deferred maintenance and a lack of investment from successive Governments.

“A bunch of highways around the country have just suddenly had their surfaces start to crumble and break up, but that has been because of the long-term lack of investment leading up to now,” Thomsen said.

“We are hearing more and more from people all over the country is them saying they’ve never seen the roads this bad in their life before.”

Thomsen said a survey in February last year indicated that 66 per cent of AA members were dissatisfied with the roads.

“I won’t be surprised at all if when we do the next survey in February again this year, if that number has gone higher.”

Prior to the last general election, Thomsen said AA’s priority was a call for more road maintenance funding - $900 million to be precise.

He said Labour’s $500 million towards the issue was a step in the right direction but ultimately in fell short in what was needed to catch up on the backlog.

A Government spokesperson said that during the 2021/22 financial year more than 45,000 potholes were repaired across the 11,000km of New Zealand’s state highway network and a further 2,400km of state highway is due to be resealed or rebuilt by April.

“We are investing close to $7 billion in local road and state highway maintenance as part of the NLTP (National Land Transport Programme) 21-24, which will see around 7000 lane kilometres of state highway and 18,000 lane kilometres of local roads renewed,” they said.

“High volumes of rainfall affected both state highways and local roads last year, making it a very challenging environment, particularly regarding potholes.”

Transport Minister Michael Wood ordered a review in August last year of why there appeared to be so many potholes despite significant increases in road maintenance funding in the last two transport budgets.

A briefing from the Ministry of Transport and Waka Kotahi to Wood, earlier reported after being released to the Herald under the Official Information Act, noted he had “expressed concerns about delivery” of road maintenance promises and ordered a review of what had gone wrong.

Wood’s comments to officials, recorded in the briefing, pondered whether “it is worth considering some heavy-hitting external expertise to really turn over what is happening at the delivery end”.

The briefing updated Wood on “the way forward” for the maintenance of New Zealand’s roads, and pointed out 41 recommendations for improving the situation.

Wood earlier told the Herald that “high volumes of rainfall had been affecting state highways and local roads this year, making it a very challenging environment, particularly regarding potholes”.