Gone to pot: Waka Kotahi receives record 555 pothole complaints

A record number of complaints about vehicle damage caused by potholes were made last year, prompting a call for urgent action.

In the first 10 months of 2022, Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency received 555 claims for compensation, up from 421 in 2021.

The increase has prompted the national road freight industry group Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand to call for urgent funding for road maintenance.

“The busy summer holiday period has highlighted just what an appalling state much of our roading network is in,” says Transporting NZd chief executive Nick Leggett.

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“It’s not just about road maintenance. We also need the Government to recommit to new roading capacity to ease the strain on our existing network.”

Leggett said the Government was too focussed on blaming others, including previous governments, road users, and the weather, rather than making the necessary investment in the network.

“We acknowledge that there are a number of factors beyond the current Government’s control impacting our road network, but the blame-game isn’t going to fix the potholes or stop people’s vehicles being damaged.”

Waka Kotahi takes care of the state highway network, which covers about 11,000 kilometres of fully sealed roads. The remaining 83,000km of the country’s network are local roads, which are the responsibility of local councils.

As of October 6 Waka Kotahi had paid out a total of $20,136.86 in compensation for damage to vehicles since 2019.

That did not include any payments that may have been made by Waka Kotahi’s contractors.

A Government spokesperson said more than 45,000 potholes were repaired across the state highway network during the 2022 financial year and another 2400km was due to be resealed or rebuilt by April.

“We are investing close to $7 billion in local road and state highway maintenance as part of the NLTP (National Land Transport Programme) 21-24, which will see around 7000 lane kilometres of state highway and 18,000 lane kilometres of local roads renewed,” they said.

“High volumes of rainfall affected both state highways and local roads last year, making it a very challenging environment, particularly regarding potholes.”

Leggett said the Government needed to increase funding for road maintenance and new investment in state highways, despite the challenging economic conditions.

“The best way forward for New Zealand is to invest in infrastructure that supports our economy. New projects will help us grow our way out of our recessionary environment.

“Ninety-three per cent of all products in New Zealand are delivered by truck. Doing nothing about the state of our roads will literally bring the domestic economy to a standstill.”

ACT Transport spokesperson Simon Court said the state of roads had deteriorated dramatically, with complaints rising sharply from 298 in 2020.

“The Government seems to think that fixing damaged roads is a low priority and slowing everyone down is a better solution,” he said.

“ACT supports moves to lower the road toll, but that comes from better roading infrastructure, not slowing people down and putting further restrictions on businesses who have quite frankly put up with enough under this Government.”