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Two new footpaths in Te Hana have left locals frustrated, after contractors finished the job leaving a power pole in the middle of a path, as well as other issues.
Auckland Transport (AT) has carried out what it calls a ‘like for like’ path renewal along one side of Coronation Street and Whakapirau Road, replacing an old bitumen path with a slightly wider concrete version.
Local board member Colin Smith says while the path itself is great, it beggared belief that contractors didn’t avoid a power pole that was on the edge of the previous path.
Smith also said drains and driveways should have been better reinstated, and open drains should be filled in.
“It should all be kerbed and channelled. It’s totally dangerous. You can’t have people hopping out of cars and falling into drains,” he said.
“I don’t think this is acceptable around the township. There are new paths in Wellsford and Kaipara Flats and they’ve all been kerbed and channelled.”
Smith was also critical of the use of rocks that had been put into open roadside drains in Te Hana and Port Albert, saying they were even more hazardous for anyone parking on the road and that they would block culverts.
“I’m over these rocks. The water has got nowhere to go, and there’s no support there for the road,” he said.
“No other community has rocks in their drains like this. Te Hana residents pay rates like everybody else and this is the best they can do for them?”
Coronation Street residents Thomas de Thierry and Wayne Murphy, who both work for a local concrete manufacturer, are also unhappy.
De Thierry said the corner of his street and Whakapirau Road collapsed when contractors dug into it to replace the footpath and stormwater was now running under drainage pipes instead of through them.
“When it rains, water runs under pipe and rocks down to the park, and floods.
“Why didn’t they do a pipeline and kerb and channel?” he said.
The new path, edged with soft topsoil and grass seed, had also made access to his driveway uneven and difficult.
Murphy said the power pole in the path would be laughable, if it wasn’t so dangerous.
“If you get a kid on a bike coming down there, he’ll T-bone himself – it’s right smack in the middle,” he said.
He maintained that the money it cost to renew the footpaths would have been better spent on clearing and covering the drains.
“If you go to other areas, they keep towns tidy, but not over here. The drains are all overgrown and culverts are blocked,” he said. “If we were in Matakana or Warkworth, we wouldn’t have this complaint, it’s just because of the area we live in.”
De Thierry agreed, pointing out that Te Hana was the gateway to Auckland, with more than four million vehicles passing through it every year, and it deserved better.
An AT spokesperson said the power pole issue was being currently considered.
“We are looking at possible interim solutions, as we recognised we had a problem with the power pole when carrying out our renewal programme,” she said.
However, she maintained there was still as much room to pass the pole as when it was on the edge of the previous, narrower path.
“Clearance is 800mm from the edge of the path to the pole – not less than the footpath width prior to the renewal.”
AT also said Whakapirau Road water tables had been cleared, with no rocks placed back, while rocks in Coronation Street drains “were not touched during the footpath works”.
The soil and grass either side of the new path would “be monitored until the grass has been established”, the spokesperson added, while kerbing and channelling came under a different remit.
“This is outside the scope of renewal contract operating work,” she said. “New kerbing and channelling would be under capital works.”
Smith said that was half the problem – “none of the buggers talk to each other.”
