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Roy and Vivian Andrews say sealing Omaha Valley Road should have been a condition of the resource consent for the Omaha Valley quarry.
A local contractor has offered free aggregate to seal a one-kilometre stretch of road which leads to a busy quarry, but Auckland Transport says it would be unfair for the road to jump up the priority list.
Residents of Omaha Valley Road say dust caused by hundreds of quarry trucks at the end of the road is a health hazard and is polluting waterways.
Roy Andrews has lived on the road for about 20 years and says truck numbers have dramatically increased in the past year.
“There’s nearly a truck a minute now,” he says. “Every time they drive past there’s a huge cloud of dust.
“We can’t drink our tank water and when it rains the creek beside the road turns white with dust runoff, which flows into the Whangateau Harbour.
“We accept there’s a quarry at the end of the road and there will be a large amount of trucks, but the road needs to be in a state that minimises its impact. It should have been a condition of the resource consent.”
Unlike the resource consent for Whangaripo quarry, which limits truck numbers using Matakana Valley Road to 20 a day, there is no daily limit at Omaha Valley. The quarry’s resource consent allows for 21,000 vehicle movements a year, equating to about 67 trucks a day within the six-day week.
Only about one kilometre of the flat, straight road needs to be sealed, however it is about 90th on Auckland Transport’s sealing priority list, so is unlikely to be sealed.
About 10 residents live on the unsealed section of road with further lifestyle blocks under development.
Auckland Transport conducted two traffic counts in June and October last year.
Over a week in June, there were only 16 trucks a day and 500 cars, while in a week in October there were 21 trucks and 350 cars a day.
However, Mr Andrews says quarrying all but stops in the winter and a study needs to be done in summer.
“It’s like studying visitor numbers at Omaha Beach in July and concluding no-one goes there.”
When Mahurangi Matters visited the road last month there were five trucks in the space of 15 minutes.
Wharehine manages the quarry and managing director Rob Gibson says he is prepared to supply aggregate for the road for free.
“It is really Auckland Council’s responsibility to seal the road. It’s not our asset. We pay high road user fees which go to NZTA and could be used to cover some of this work. The dust is a problem for residents and it does pollute the stream, so we are prepared to help out.”
The quarry has become much busier in recent years as the economy picks up, he says.
“It was there before most of the houses were built and the people chose to live near the quarry, but perhaps people have become used to the quieter period.”
Auckland Transport says the metal is only a small part of the cost of sealing the road and sealing it ahead of other roads with higher traffic counts would be unfair.
“The majority of the costs involve the building of the pavement, drainage, retaining walls and culverts,” media relations manager Mark Hannan says.
“If AT were to promote this road up the priority list on the basis of the offer, other unsealed roads in Rodney carrying higher traffic volumes would have to be deferred.
“This would result in complaints from residents living on the deferred roads.
“AT has an equitable and transparent method of prioritising the limited funding available for seal extensions, which naturally means some roads will be sealed earlier than others.
“Changing the results of this prioritisation without due cause would result in complaints about AT acting in an ad hoc and unfair manner.”
However, AT intends on doing a further traffic study of the road, which could be used in reassessing the priority list.
