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A group of Kaipara Hills residents are at their wits end as they try to convince Auckland Transport (AT) to maintain their narrow roads, which they say have become not just a nuisance to drive on, but dangerous.
Perched precariously on the top of ridges, the drop offs on the sides of some of these roads are frightening – hundreds of metres down into deep gullies. The edges of the roads are crumbling away and floodwaters have undermined fences and pushed them over.
Slips and water tracts along Mainland Road are threatening to make the route impassable. These slips are falling into Stephen Dill’s steep paddocks below the road and he is concerned the road is already teetering on the verge of being unsafe for trucks. Should that happen, he and other farmers on the road won’t be able to get their stock out.
Residents share the road with stock trucks with trailer units and, until recently, logging trucks.
When the roads are wet, they become slick and slippery, resident Haley Clayton says.
“If you meet a truck on the road, there’s no margin on the sides for evasive action with a good chance you could slid into the truck on the exposed clay,” she says.
But it is not just this one stretch of Mainland Road that is affected, although it has certainly taken a hammering.
Dill wants AT and its contractors to take the situation seriously.
“We’re not looking for sealed roads – just safe unsealed ones,” he says.
Auckland Transport was invited to comment on the state the Kaipara Hills roads, but did not meet the paper’s deadline.
