Submission Details

Roading

What do you think we should do?

Alternative option: Keep roading renewals at the current level?

Any other comments on roading renewals:

Roading (Operational) Council has three priority activities, not in any particular order, water, wastewater, stormwater, refuse and roads/bridges and with the exception of refuse, are all Engineering Lifeline utilities. It is critical that a safe and effective roading network is maintained for the wellbeing of the whole District. Without an effective network, it is also impossible to construct and maintain the effectiveness of all the other essential infrastructures. 20 + years ago the capital works roading programme was in the vicinity of 10km per year, roughly 10% of the roading network, equating to an average design life of 100 years. While there is no exact design life for roads, due to the high number of variables, ground conditions, pavement thickness, current and future traffic volumes and composition to name a few obvious examples, it would be reasonable to assume a design life of say 20 to 30 years. With the significant increases in road maintenance/construction costs, the capital works roading programme would probably have reduced, thus compounding the dilemma. A factor that Council has difficulty in predicting and controlling is that traffic volume and composition can change virtually overnight and happens relatively frequently, one example being a number of heavy trucks changing their route and virtually destroyed an average condition road, simply by an increased number of trucks over a short period of time. Another short no-exit road was destroyed due to the construction of a new milking shed which required significant quantities of construction materials, especially base metal and concrete, etc., thus resulting in say a year's supply of trucks over a 2 or 3 week period. It can also occur when carrying out capital road works, again due to short term intensive traffic delivering metal and removing existing materials, but is directly related to the locations of the capital works and the supply of materials, generally a quarry. A significant proportion of the roading network is not designed for this type of short term, high intensity loading and, it would also be fair to say that a number of the lower volume roads have had little, or no, specific pavement design. In the earlier years, this was not a critical problem as they were largely class 2 or 3 roads and only lighter trucks could use them, the class 1 roads being the higher volume main roads, with rail carrying the bulk of the long haul products. There was a period of intense lobbying by the road transport lobby, resulting in the removal of the Class 2 & 3 road classifications, the main reason being to reduce transport costs by the removal of double handling materials on to smaller trucks for deliveries into the less used roading network. It was also the start of the demise of NZ Rail. All this with the stroke of a pen, on some of the worst ground conditions in New Zealand and, due to the nature of the farming sector in this District; trucks using every rural road on a regular basis, with no improvement works being carried out on back country roads and no additional funding. Class 1 trucks are now using roads which were simply thin layers of metal with a seal layer to keep water out and reduce dust, Funding for the whole exercise fell, and continues to fall on both, the ratepayers and taxpayers, the same people, with the added insult of paying a 15% surcharge on the rates. To add further insult to injury, the road transport industry lobbied to introduce a new super vehicle, the HPV truck, recognised by the increase in length and gross weight and the little yellow H sticker on the front and rear of these trucks. The HPV stands for High Productivity Vehicle and the selling point being, as they were carrying more weight, it would result in fewer trucks on the road. I can find no evidence of that and patiently waiting for someone to produce irrefutable evidence of this, not a difficult exercise. They would also be confined to specifically approved routes and we now go a full circle again with the subject of double handling loads. From anecdotal information, and a sceptical mind, these vehicles are already using unapproved haulage routes and I watch with interest as to what happens next. One method of mitigating some of the risk to the condition of the roads between the two sites is investigating procurement method options. Lowest price contracts may not necessarily be in the best interest of the Council, especially if long haul routes are involved. I believe that the carbon cost of transport has been considered by some agencies but have no detailed information on this. A more realistic approach may be through the identification of potential costs of possible pavement damage to the relevant haul roads during construction could be a consideration and, may in fact even be a factor in prioritising specific projects, as its total construction cost, including the potential costs on the haul route may be too high. The other method is to ensure a level playing field for material cartage for all tenderers by including severe penalties for overloading to cut transport costs, a major risk to council, and was recognised as a good tool, by the construction companies at large. This has been used in the past but its importance has increased significantly. If the Council reduces the current maintenance levels, it may never catch up and this is occurring over the country's entire roading network, both local roads and highways, and additional funding is not the sole way to retain roading service levels. Innovative options could be investigated as to alternative solutions, the physical works being only one aspect, even if it means that a sealed pavement that is constantly failing is reverted back to a metal road, or the road, such as Piako Road, becomes a state highway. In the 1960’s a section of Matuku Road was closed to heavy trucks over the Winter period, possibly by a Class 4 classification, because of the peat under the road and is now open to Class 1 loads and probably the occasional HPV truck. A possible option is to work with the trucking industry to encourage them to use specific routes so that heavier maintenance is prioritised on specific roads. This was tried, with some success, several years ago but has since lapsed. Another possible and appropriate option to consider is to use the following clause of the Heavy Motor Regulations 1974: (3) Subject to sub clause (19) of this regulation, Class C shall comprise roads— (a) That would be likely to suffer excessive damage by heavy motor vehicles if classified in Class I; and (b) Are classified in Class C by the Agency. I apologise for the extremely detailed submission, more of a book, but believe that it is necessary to understand the history of the roading network, how we got in this mess and to illustrate that Council by itself cannot reach a realistic solution. It requires a whole of Central and Local Government approach, including LGNZ and NZTA, to rectify this funding crisis and to lay the costs where they fall, especially the Holy Grail subject of Road User Charges (RUCs) and whether they actually represent their true costs, in order to relate to true rail costs, as they maintain their own networks. In terms of the structural integrity of roads, light vehicles have minimal impact and the main factors that result in pavement deterioration are the existing ground conditions, pavement design, if any, climatic conditions, on-going maintenance and heavy vehicles, noting that a significant portion of the roading network pavement has not been specifically designed, they simply developed and tweaked over the years, with little, or no, control over factors such as traffic volumes and composition, noting that less than 1% of the road network can have major works every year. The Country, as a whole, would never have been able to afford it and cannot be compared with works, such as the SH1 expressway and Transmission Gully, roads built primarily on green field sites and at costs that are unimaginable and unaffordable for rural roading authorities. It should also include discussions with the Police, as enforcement to keep HPV trucks on the approved HPV routes, is an essential component of this issue and would be included in their own operational budgets. Roading (Asset) I am not aware of the current depth of the Asset section of roading, particularly in terms of such functions as deterioration modelling, formal RAMM determination of proposed capital works, but simply raise the question of possible savings in all budgets, if they are not particularly necessary, particularly as the programme is so small. I am aware of the costs of RAMM and its database, and I will not be popular for raising this question, but everything has to be looked at and realistically justified. Marsden Point Refinery While this particular subject may not appear to relate directly to the subject of roading, its effect on the costs and availability of both fuel and bitumen have a major impact on both the timing and cost of road works. Councils, including LGNZ and NZTA, should also be actively lobbying Government for the reinstatement of the Marsden Point Refinery to maintain a higher level of fuel and bitumen security and price control.