Ashburton councillor fires up over funding ‘tourist roads’

The Team Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

An Ashburton councillor is furious at the intention of spending more money on “tourist roads”.

Councillor Stuart Wilson slammed the proposed direction of the Ashburton District Council’s $1.7 million of additional roading funding, saying it was all going on just two roads.

“I’m very disappointed with where you are spending the money,” Wilson told the council's roading manager Mark Chamberlain.

“You are spreading $1.7m on [Arundel Rakaia Gorge Rd], which is a damn tourist road.

“I know it’s a busy road but I thought we put $1.7m in to be spread across the district.

“The majority of our maintenance is going into those two roads.”

In the council’s subsidised road rehabilitation funding, Arundel Rakaia Gorge Rd, part of the Inland Scenic Route 72, has $1.75m of works across five sections and Thompsons Track has $730,400.

That equates to 67% of the total $3.68m budget.

From the additional $1.7m taken from the forestry reserve for unsubsidised road funding, Arundel Rakaia Gorge Rd ($492,200) and Thompsons Track ($424,200) combine for 53% of the spend.

Wilson said he knew the decisions were based on traffic volume but “there are roads just as important” to the district.

Chamberlain said that the two roads had the most work scheduled because they had most of the potholes and failures on the network.

“If we look 10 years down the track we shouldn’t have to be spending money there.”

He said they were the roads that, from a safety aspect, needed the work done.

In his report to the council, Chamberlain said the rehabilitation work would eliminate anything other than minor routine maintenance, second coat seals and reseals for at least 25 years. It would also avoid using resources for ongoing patching to hold the older failed sections of pavement.

But Wilson disagreed, suggesting the funding should be spread further across the district and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency should be stumping up more money for the two busy roads.

“Those [two] roads are semi-tourist roads and I think if NZTA don’t want to help us spend more money on those roads, I say stiff luck,” Wilson said.

“People can growl and you can say to NZTA, ‘you are not giving us enough money to maintain those roads’.”

Chamberlain said the proposed list of rehabilitation work would go to the council for final approval.