Mtn Road hold-ups anger skiers

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 394, 9 July 1991, Page 7

Mtn Road hold-ups anger skiers

Some skiers visiting Turoa Sunday last week were spitting tacks at the long delays in getting up the Ohakune Mountain Road, but management say they did everything they could on the day to ease the problem.

Skiers sat in traffic jams almost from the bottom of the road to the

top, waiting for cars in front of them to move, while traffic inched past

the road's trouble spots. Journey times of between an hour up to over four hours were reported. Many skiers claimed Turoa Ski Resort, who have taken over the contract to control the road for the Ruapehu District Council from

the Department of Conservation, was not doing enough to alleviate the problem and while many accepted the situation philosophically, saying they thought it was just a combination of weather factors, others were fuming at what they saw as mismanagement of the road. Some claimed that the road had not been graded properly; that staff had not been trained to direct traffic properly; that bad decisions on where to restrict the road to chains were made; that communication among staff was not good enough; that Turoa's information on road conditions was poor; and some that the road was too dangerous and should have been closed altogether. Bad weather Mountain Manager Grant McMasters told the Bulletin Turoa had done all they could on the day to alleviate the problem. He said the hold ups were due to a combination of factors. Three

days of snowfalls up to Saturday night plus temperatures down to minus 9#C and no more than zero had meant a steady build up of packed, frozen snow on the road. "The grader had been working on the road constantly, but every time it does a run it leaves about that much (indicating about a centimetre) behind, which compacts and freezes," said Mr McMasters. "Normally that would be quickly broken up by cars, but in this case it didn't." He said the layers built up until there was about 5cm of frozen ice and snow. ' He said there has to be some clearance off the seal otherwise the grader blade damages the road surface. They are looking at modifying the grader to try to help the problem, he said. Poor seal The hairpin area on the mountain road is especially causing problems because of its steepness, said Mr McMasters, but also, the surface of the road is too smooth. "We asked the council about the seal on the road, but they have done nothing about it," he said, adding that the surface, on a stretch of road with a very steep gradient, is almost smooth and has no seal chip surface at all. A complicating factor, and one which many people believe is the main ingredient of the problem is light-weight front wheel drive cars fitted with inferior chains. Mr McMasters said there was a definite increase in the numbers of light front-wheel drive cars and that they do cause problems. He also said hoop chains cause problems because they cannot be fitted tightly to the tyre and there isn't as much chain as the old style. "I don't like ladder chains because you haven't always got chain links on the road like you do with diamond pattern chains. With hoop chains, especially loose ones, the tyre can actually spin inside the chain." Many snow chains are now too light to really do the job, he said. The links are too light and don't bite into the ice. Staff numbers Mr McMasters countered criticism that not enough staff were committed to the road, saying there are five Turoa staff assigned to the road which is the same number that the Department of Conservation had available for the job last year. He said five extra staff were helping out on the road on the Sunday, including himself and other senior staff. One trouble spot on the day was Rimu Hill, which was slick with frost rather than snow and ice. Because this steep section is before

the nine kilometre chain barrier many people had problems negotiating the road here, especially the front wheel drive cars, because they had not fitted chains by then. Mr McMasters said he had checked the road at about 7.15am and found there was no ice at that time. He said the grit truck driver from Kui Griffin had also found no ice at around 7.30am, but that the driver had found it icy on his second trip sometime after 8.00am. Mr McMasters said they were looking at a number of actions to try to alleviate the problems long term. "It s a combination of very cold temperatures, steep gradients, front wheel drive cars with poor chains, poor driving on the part of some inexperienced people, and smooth seal," he said. Record temperatures Department of Conservation officer Lisle Irwin said there was no doubt the record cold temperatures and weather through June had increased problems on the road. "It wasn't the worst it's been but the combination is about as bad as you can get overall," he said. "The combination

of very cold temperatures, low snow levels and large crowds make for a really difficult situation." He also agreed that some front wheel drive vehicles add to the problem, and that there had been a steady increase in the percentage of such cars over the last four years. Inferior chains also did not help, he agreed. "Having those conditions so early in the season, coupled with so many people makes it very difficult for Turoa," said Mr Irwin. "They're just starting out on the learning curve - it doesn't make it easy for them." "What you've got to remember is, it is an alpine road and you are going to get very difficult driving conditions." Asked if there were similar problems on the Bruce Road, Mr Irwin said there were, but that because it is much shorter blockages clear much quicker. Also, there are many more places to pull off the road there. He said DoC was happy to help with advice on controlling the road, having carried out the contract for several years. "There really is no easy solution to the problem," said Mr Irwin.