Council plans to improve unsealed road conditions

Waitaki District Council and Whitestone Contracting Ltd have completed a maintenance review of the unsealed roading network. The aim of the review was to identify how to improve the road network and ride qualities to match the increasing demands over the next five years.

Over the years a number of significant changes in the weight and speed of heavy vehicles, increased general traffic and changes in land use leading to intensive heavy road traffic for short periods have affected the ride quality experienced by road users. Correspondingly Government funding for Council roads has become more constrained.

Council believes implementing the outcomes from the review including better drainage and water runoff will lead to improved maintenance techniques and stronger road surfaces. The success of this plan will be dependent on sourcing appropriate levels of funding, in particular from central government as recognition of the networks increasingly important contribution to Waitaki and the New Zealand’s economy.

Council says:

“We would appreciate if road users could exercise even more care during improvement works as road surfaces may be looser than commonly expected.”