Since the 20th of January the offramp delivering commuters from SH1’s pothole-laden post-work-and-school traffic towards the Cambridge Velodrome has been closed, not because of any particular work on the ramp itself but because the whole southbound part of the road has been cordoned off, drivers detoured with an excess of traffic cones to the right-hand lane of the northbound part of the road. This development marks just about the third continuous month that intensive roadworks – mostly focused on asphalt repairs – have been underway in the stretch of road from Hautapu out towards the Tamahere interchange. It’s meant some living out Cambridge & Karāpiro ways have had to rethink their journey in for Uni.
So why the works in the first place? Are they getting anything done out there?
Well, currently we’ve on stage five of an (estimated) eight stage plan. The previous four stages have been worked on increments of five kilometers, the NZTA say that “the team is ahead of schedule” thanks to a run of good weather and ‘high production’, meaning stages one through four are “largely complete”.
The stages we’ve seen so far have mainly been focused on strengthening roads to make them more resilient and safer for drivers by remedying potholes and worsening asphalt. But what does strengthening our roads actually mean? The consensus among scientists is that, thanks to the scary C word (Climate), an accelerated cycle of heat softening roads and rain eroding it and potholes fucking up tyres is going to cost taxpaying commuters a whole lot of moolah. So even when stage five – which is projected to end in mid-August – comes to a close, it’s anyone’s guess as to when we’ll be bumper-to-bumper watching a bunch of blokes in hi-vis doing fuck all.
