Roading reseals ready to roll out in Mid Canterbury

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

Mid Canterbury roads will get an extra 50km of road resealing after the council dipped into ratepayer funds to cover the cost.

The Ashburton District Council decided to use $2.46 million of ratepayer money after there was a shortfall in the NZ Transport Agency funding.

The council aims to complete an extra 50km of road resealing on top of the already planned 60km of NZTA-subsidised reseals.

Infrastructure and open spaces group manager Neil McCann said staff selected roads that would ensure the additional work was done as soon as possible.

The contractor has been given the selected sites to be completed by the end of March, he said.

“We’ll monitor that and make sure we can get as close to 50km done.”
As part of the selection process, staff found priority roads that didn’t require significant pre-seal work, he said.

“The sites selected are from the forward work programme, but ones that require minimal pre-reseal repairs, have relatively long lengths, and [are] having a single coat chip seal.

“They have been selected according to the need of being sealed before the cracks open up and water gets in and causes potholes.”

The 27 unsubsidised reseal sites are for pothole prevention rather than pothole repairs, he said.

When the council was deciding how to allocate the $2.4m last month, mayor Neil Brown had suggested putting it all into extra reseals, calling it "preventative maintenance” to avoid the roads cracking and forming potholes.

The extra reseals will push the total past 100km, doubling up on last year’s 49.5km of road resealing.

The estimated cost of the 50.8km of reseals added to the programme is $2.03m, which could leave around $400,000 in the roading budget to allocate to other work.

“We will wait and see if there is much left after doing the reseals before deciding what to spend the remainder on, as it will depend on available time and the season,” McCann said.

Major unsubsidised reseal sites:
Ashburton Staveley Rd 5.8km
Back Track 3.5km (4 sites)
Barkers Rd 5km
Chertsey Kyle Rd 6.4km
Dromore Methven Rd 5170 (2)
Hinds Arundel Rd 6395 (4)
Rakaia River Rd 5.6km
Springfield Rd East 3.7km
Timaru Track Rd 4.2km