It's potentially been a profitable winter for tyre businesses around the country with pot holed roads giving them a helping hand.
Potholes have been popping up (or down) all over the place leaving many motorists stranded on the side of the road grappling jacks and spare tyres.
In September, Waka Kotahi's contact centre fielded 35 complaints about potholes, however in August there were 113.
A recent social media post warned drivers to be cautious with 'at least 20 cars with blown tyres and rims” on the Kaimai Range, which connects Waikato to Tauranga.
So Stuff asked Waka Kotahi what causes a pot hole and how do they fix them.
A pothole is essentially a hole that forms in the surfacing layers exposing the underlying pavement.
NZTA maintenance and operations regional manager Rob Campbell says ultimately the best way to resolve potholes is by improving the overall condition of the state highway network.
However, depending on the location, number of potholes and time of year, a variety of methods are used to fix potholes.
'The most straightforward of these is to quickly fill the pothole with cold asphalt aka ‘coldmix' and compact it. However, the cold asphalt will not bond with the existing road surface and is likely to fail at some point due to subsequent rainfall entering the road surface again.”
A better solution is when Waka Kotahi can make repairs in dry weather and can complete the work without overly disrupting road users.
'We will complete more permanent repairs, by removing the full road surface and replacing it with hot asphalt. This is a longer lasting solution that generally ensures the road remains in good shape until the following summer, when we can consider the best long-term treatment for the road.”
However, Campbell warns that potholes will continue to occur, especially in winter, no matter how good the roading network is.
'Water will always find a way into the road surface. We will always have crews out in winter inspecting the network and repairing issues such as potholes when required. It is imperative that road users drive to the conditions to minimise the chance of driving into a pothole.”
This summer the roading authority is renewing over 2450 lane kilometres of the state highway network across the country.
This equates to a $2.8 billion investment into state highway road maintenance across the current 2021-24 National Land Transport Programme.
It includes more than 700 lane km of renewals across the Waikato & Bay of Plenty region.
1 comment
Pothole evolution
Posted on 07-10-2022 15:12 | By CliftonGuy
From my engineering viewpoint, when you have a thin skin of blacktop over a gravel underlay, all that is required is a crack forming over a weak spot. Water is then forced hydraulically by tyres into the crack, down into the gravel layer. This results in a crazed, alligator-like skin of blacktop which bleeds clay from the underlying gravel. It is at this point that action must be taken. If action is not taken, the crazed bitumen disintegrates into a pothole, which progressively grows bigger by water forced hydraulically under the blacktop skin. The solution? Build better roads with better foundations, not just a skim coat of bitumen over gravel. German autobahns have shown how to do the job properly and they have LOTS of rain.
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