Winter roading projects underway

Roadside trees have been removed in Golding Road as contractors prepare to make a start on upgrading the street.

It will be the last in a programme of residential road improvements that the Council committed to when the Taradale Borough became part of the city of Napier in 1968. The Council has averaged two road upgrades a year.

A major benefit for upgrading roads that were originally formed when Taradale was a borough has come from lowering them in relation to adjacent properties. When stormwater pipes, designed to cope with 10-year storms, can’t manage heavy rainfall, the roads operate as secondary flow paths.

By temporarily holding stormwater, pipes can catch up as the rain eases. So surface water on such roads is not usually considered to be flooding – rather it is Napier’s drainage system working as intended.

Higgins are scheduled to complete the Golding Road contract at the end of September and the Council will be consulting residents on a replacement tree planting programme.

A pavement renewal contract, also with Higgins and covering Gallipoli Street in Onekawa and Lawrence Road on Napier Hill, is underway and, weather permitting, should be finished by the end of July.

Meanwhile, the upgrade of the 1.3 km section of Hill Road from the boundary of the Bay View township as far as Seafield Road has been completed.

It was the third stage in reconstructing the road to the improved standard already completed on the Seafield Road to Eskdale School section in recent years.