2 December 2021
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Martin Street roadworks
Enquiry
A Martin St resident, a former road worker himself, says the corner of the street (near number 17 and 21) has historically flooded a fair bit.
He says around July this year council contractors Waiotahi resealed the road. When they did, he approached the workers and told them the drain was too high to capture water flowing along the edge of the road. He says a worker told him he'd told his boss and his boss had told the council, but the council had told the contractor there wasn't money to adjust the drain and to carry on with the resealing.
Now (today) as I understand it council maintenance contractors Fulton Hogan are adjusting the drain and some of the nearby kerbing, part of which means removing the resealing along the corner of the road, which was just completed by Waiotahi.
- Can the council please provide me with some background on this work and whether this course of events/the basic facts are correct? If not, tell me specifically what is and is not correct please.
- And can the council please answer why it did not include adjusting the drain as part of the resealing works? Was that ever possible? Why / why not?
- Does this mean ratepayers are 'paying twice' as Stan believes? Why / why not?
I also have some comments to provide to the council for right of reply from the resident - Stan Hayman - see below.
COMMENTS
Nearby resident and retired road worker Stan Hayman said the corner had flooded for several years but the resealing work around July had made it worse.
"I could see the levels for the kerbing were wrong."
He said he told a worker, and the worker had said he had told his boss and the boss had spoken to the council, but the council had said there wasn't money to adjust it.
Hayman had also contacted the council before and after the resealing.
"They weren't interested in talking to me."
Hayman then received a letter from the council stating maintenance contractors Fulton Hogan would be working on the corner, and on Wednesday contractors were on site digging up the resealed road in order to fix the issue.
Hayman said the course of action was "absolutely not" how work paid for by ratepayers should be carried out.
"We're paying for it twice. As a pensioner I can't afford that.
"Whoever signed it off should get his butt kicked because it was not properly done."
Response
From Stavros Michael, DCE Infrastructure and Environment:
We acknowledge Mr Hayman’s views and concerns and discussed solutions with him in May.
Road foundation rehabilitation was undertaken on Martin Street last summer. This is a process to replace failing road foundations, usually because of gradual water saturation that renders the road susceptible to uneven settlement. Some peripheral works/repairs were also made to a portion of footpaths and channels. To prevent further water penetration and protect the new road foundations about 15 metres of kerbing was replaced with two new cesspits also installed.
It is normal practice to allow new road foundations to settle under traffic loading before the first of two surface seal layers is applied and the first seal layer on Martin Street was applied in April.
In May a staff member spoke with Mr Hayman regarding his concerns about surface stormwater not draining efficiently and ponding. My understanding is that it was explained that as this was the first seal layer, Council would monitor how well the new road foundation settled before considering whether any final level adjustments were required.
December to March is when annual road sealing works are undertaken. This follows inspections and preparation works.
The second layer of seal for Martin Street is part of this summer’s sealing programme. As the road levels appear to not have changed, our roading maintenance contractor has been instructed to undertake adjustments around the two cesspits in question, prior to the second seal layer being applied.
Contracts for projects of this nature include a defects liability period of 12 months, during which time new works are monitored for any issues that need to be rectified before final contract payments are made. This protects Council from additional costs to rectify any defective work and at this stage, we do not anticipate any additional costs to Council with regards to the Martin Street works.