Road contracts explained

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 404, 17 September 1991, Page 7

Road contracts explained

A bag of gravel was dumped on the table at last week's Waimarino Community Board meeting by member John Compton to underline his concern at the state of some roads in the district. Mr Compton said the gravel was taken from a road surface in the area, and was a sample of metal on roads that was far too coarse. The stunt led to a long discussion on roads and road works in the area. Mr Compton, asking about the specifications

for road maintenance, was told any member of the public was entitled to see the specification documents for road maintenance contracts. He was told if any contractor did not meet the specifications for road maintenance work then payment would be withheld, and that included the council' s own business unit. People may be confused by the new differential road rate, said south Ruapehu engineer Don Sattler at last

week's Waimarino Community Board meeting. He was answering a concern of Winstone Oliver, who said there were rumours circulating that there are to be big cutbacks on road works in the southern area. "The southern rate should see the roads maintained to the same level as in the past with some improvement," said Mr $attler. He said the standard would not be as good as in the north, but this reflected the higher road rate in the north. Mr Sattler was asked how the process of allocating the new state highway work operated. He said the council's road works company did not "look for work". He said Transit New Zealand inspected the state highways and then put works orders to the Ruapehu District Local Authority Trading Enterprise (LATE). "It's not the job of the LATE to go out and find potholes and fix them," said Mr Sattler. He said it was difficult to define the line between different types of work, with five contractors respon-

sible for maintaining , the roads. "For ^example, with potholes up to 35cm wide and 20mm deep, a contractor from Levin is responsible." Mr Compton said he was very pleased to have heard the discussion and was now aware of where to find the relevant information regarding road maintenance.