Thread by @michaelwoodnz

1/11 Potholes are in the news today. They have been around as long as our roads have, but when they happen frequently they are v.frustrating for drivers. Here’s why there have been more in recent years & what we are doing about it:
i) Historic underinvestment. National froze ...

2/11 road maintenance funding for 8 years from 2009/10-16/17. Roads are like yr house. If u neglect the maintenance, problems build up over time & get bigger, harder, and more costly to fix. Unsurprisingly a large upsurge in logged complaints about potholes started in 2017/18...

3/11 ii) An extremely wet winter. Water is the main cause of potholes. When it penetrates the surface of roads & then has the pressure of vehicles from above, it creates cracks which can undermine the structure & cause potholes to appear. The very wet... facebook.com/watch/?v=87234…

4/11 conditions (ie: 150% of normal in the North Island last month) this year and repeated extreme weather events have made the issue worse this year.
iii) Heavier vehicles. On some roads the introduction of heavier trucks by National have had a big impact.

5/11 ... They allowed trucks up to 53 tonnes from 2010. Heavier trucks do a lot more damage – sometimes hundreds times more due to the “4th power law”. This was at the same time as they froze maintenance budgets. beehive.govt.nz/release/heavie…

6/11 ... The above is not to shrug off the issue, but it is why we are currently seeing more potholes. The key thing people want to know is what we are doing about it. Most importantly, we have made a huge investment to make up for National’s budget freeze...

7/11 While we can usually only do temporary patches in the colder months, this summer will see the biggest ever maintenance programme, with around 2500 lane kilometres planned for renewal.

8/11 ... Some of the other areas in media reporting today, such as SH35 on the East Coast are a little different. They are areas that are bearing the brunt of repeated, unprecedented extreme weather events. This is climate change in action. We work to remediate these areas as...

9/11 quickly as we can, but in some areas the massive damage & complex conditions take time. It’s a reminder that as we maintain our roading network, we also need to take action to reduce emissions. The same National Party who underfunded maintenance...

10/11 and complain about the subsequent potholes, also oppose everything we do to reduce transport emissions. Labour is & will continue to look after the network & make up for past neglect, while also taking action to reduce emissions & climate impacts on our communities.

11/11 There is work to be done on this issue. National need to answer why they froze maintenance budgets for 8 years. The nearly 50% increase in maintenance budget we have put in place & record programme now rolling out will start to make a difference.