In a region with more road cones than people, drivers are mystified why potholes keep reappearing on Bay of Plenty roads soon after they are fixed, with some holes filled in every two weeks.

The situation is so bad, 80-year-old Mt Maunganui resident Robbie Robinson has taken to fixing them himself. Before he took matters into his own hands, he says the huge potholes outside his house had to be fixed 12 times in the last two years.

“No sooner have they filled them in, they are back. One only lasted six weeks,” he says. “I’m not surprised because I watched the guy doing it, and he pushed it down with his hand like he was making a sandcastle.”

Before retiring, Robbie worked in roading and trucks, so he’s aware of the importance of “doing jobs properly”.

“Years ago, the council used to have a chief engineer, so he’d know what was going on with all the roads. Now the council has CEO of this and that – but for any actual work, they contract it out, so they have no control over the quality.

“Imagine how much it costs with all these fixes. We are paying for it in rates.”

Robbie goes out in the mornings to sweep rocks and stones off the road.

“The holes are bad enough, but then you have all the rubble from the filler.

“Just along from here is a primary school, so there are lots of cars in the morning. You don’t want rocks and holes in the road.”

A few metres along from the potholes are speed bumps.

“The way they have been put in has caused problems too; when it rains, they act like a dam, so you get a pool of water lying in the middle of the road. They needed to put gaps in them to let the water drain.

“The kids on the footpath get soaked when a car goes past – as the water just lies there with nowhere to drain to. All the water is making that part of the road soften too, and then what have we got, more potholes.”

Bay of Plenty residents Stuff spoke to say there are similar problems on roads throughout the region. Tyler Smith lives near Windermere Drive leading to Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology.

“Big potholes appeared in the road this year just after they surfaced it. So they filled them in, but the holes came back. They’ve had to come and fill them in again three times in three months.”

Michelle Jordaan has just paid $1500 for the suspension in her car to be fixed as she travels on Welcome Bay Road where there are deep potholes that she says are fixed every two weeks, then reappear.

“It’s got to the point where we see them fixing them, and say, ‘see you in two weeks’. That’s how long we’ve seen them last. It’s like the tar or whatever they use doesn’t set, or gets pushed out by the rain.”

Not only are the holes damaging to car tyres, wheels and suspension – they could cause serious, even fatal accidents.

“The potholes are so big that if you want to swerve to avoid them, you’d have to go over the centre line,” says Michelle.

Heading out of Te Puke in the direction of Whakatāne, locals call the beginning of the Matata Straights road, “one big pothole”.

Jessica Jamieson was driving her mum to Tauranga Airport when she came across a stretch of 20 to 30 metres of potholes in both wheel tracks, so even driving just 30km/phr it was impossible to see them all.

Jamieson told Stuff in October that pothole encounter had also damaged her suspension and wheel rims, leaving her with a $2000 bill.

State Highway 29 over the Kaimai Range are also notorious for potholes – last year, 31 cars in just one morning had to pull over with blown rims or tyres after hitting a giant pothole.

Tauranga City Council’s infrastructure general manager Nic Johansson says pothole repairs in winter are a temporary fix.

“Wet weather and heavy traffic impact how long a temporary fix will last. Permanent repairs can take place during the summer months when we see warmer, drier weather conditions.”

Nic says Robbie’s observations of a dozen repairs in a few years are accurate.

“When required, we have had contractors undertake temporary pothole repairs on Kaimanawa St. This has been necessary while we have planned to get it on the programme for a permanent repair.”

The section of the road has deteriorated over two years, compounded by bad weather, he says.

“We agree that the current state of the road isn’t ideal and apologise for the frustration and inconvenience it has caused the community. We will have it repaired over the summer period.”

Robbie says he’ll believe it when he sees it.

Until then it’s left to an 80-year-old resident to help keep the roads safe and free of rubble as school children are dropped off.

-Annemarie Quill/Stuff.