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Wilson Road resident Brian Sollis says the thousands of cars which head to the Cement Works each summer create clouds of dust, damaging his heritage home.
Unsealed roads could be costing Rodney residents millions of dollars a year, according to research compiled by Rodney Local Board member Greg Sayers.
Mr Sayers has been running a survey via the website he started – sealrodneyroads.co.nz – to discover how metal roads impact residents.
After 12 months, 617 people have responded. The average cost incurred by the respondents was $2048.
The majority of people (477) said they had incurred damage to their vehicles due to unsealed roads at an average cost of $2456. This included damage to vehicles from accidents, loose metal, damage to suspension from potholes and corrugations, and damage to electrical components due to dust.
A total of 180 respondents said they incurred an average of $490 a year just from replacing damaged tyres.
A further 93 people said they had incurred about $40 in health-related costs due to dust, including contaminated water, water filters, house washing, asthma and hay fever medications, doctor and pharmacy bills.
If this figure is extrapolated out to all residents living on unsealed roads it could potentially be costing Rodney residents more than $12 million a year.
Mr Sayers has also investigated the costs of crashes on unsealed roads.
“According to information from the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), which I have obtained through the Official Information Act, there has been one death a year from crashes on Auckland’s unsealed roads and four serious injuries and 20 minor injuries,” he says.
“According to the Ministry of Transport, the cost per fatality is $3.85 million, while the cost per serious injury is $409,000 and the cost per minor injury is $21,700. Applied to Auckland’s unsealed roads that equates to about $6 million a year of avoidable taxpayer costs. These figures are for 2013, so they are probably higher now.”
An NZTA study in 1992 found that the cost of driving on unsealed roads would add less than five per cent to the total operating cost of a vehicle. (nzta.govt.nz/resources/research/reports/37/)
Meanwhile, Wilson Road resident Brian Sollis says dust from the popular road is affecting his health and is damaging the heritage building he lives in.
The road runs to the swimming spot at the Cement Works in Warkworth, which attracts thousands of visitors a year.
“Auckland Council advertises it as a place for people to visit in the summer and it’s one of the most popular swimming holes in the region,” Mr Sollis says. “People come in their thousands. If Council is going to promote it, the least they could do is seal the road.”
He has received support from Heritage New Zealand. Heritage advisor Robin Byron says dust from the road is damaging Wilson House, a Category 2 listed building that Mr Sollis now owns.
The house was built in 1903 as the Cement Works manager’s residence and is one of the first concrete houses in the country.
Ms Byron has written a letter urging Council to seal the road.
“It has come to our attention that Wilson House is being undermined by the lime dust agitated by vehicles using the metalled road,” the letter states.
The house is subject to an “invasive amount of dust”, which is causing damage to fittings, fabric and the overall integrity of the building.
The road needed be sealed to protect the building.
“It is important to the future survival of this significant heritage house and to the values associated with it. It needs to be addressed in a timely manner given the volume of traffic that now frequents the Cement Works.”
Mr Sollis says dust accumulates on his roof, causing the house to flood when it rains.
“We have water running down the light fittings.”
He also says there have been a number of accidents on the road in the past year.
Despite the dust, Mr Sollis is reluctant to move.
“Architecture is very important to me and it’s a beautiful historic house. It’s one of a kind.”
