Shingle road ‘shambles’ in rural Canterbury
By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Canterbury resident Ian Hodge says his shingle road was left in a "shambles" after maintenance work.
Hodge has lived on Rawles Crossing Rd in the Greenstreet area, just out of Ashburton, for over 20 years.
It’s rural living on a shingle road and his family loves the lifestyle.
"We can put up with a bit of dust from a shingle road, it’s just part of living out here.”
The problem is there hasn’t been any shingle put on the road since he moved in and there's nothing left to grade on some patches of the road, he said.
He said his frustration rose when the Ashburton District Council’s roading contractor completed maintenance on a section of pot-holed road that "left it in a dangerous state”.
"What it ended up being was a shambles,” Hodge said.
"They dropped truckloads of a mud-like substance on the road and then a truckload of water. Then a heavy roller tried to roll it flat but couldn't. The grader couldn't grade it.’’
It was a mess and the surface was almost impassable, he said.
"It was slippery and dangerous and formed tramlines which steered cars on its track.”
The contractors eventually returned to "remove the sludge” and a grader attempted to redistribute the gravel, which he said hadn’t been replenished in the 20-odd years they had lived there.
"Now some of the potholes are back and the speed limit is still 100kph.”
Hodge said he was baffled at the "prolonged, expensive and ineffective process" and, as a ratepayer, believed the road should be fixed once and fixed right.
"We pay our rates and can expect a certain level of service.
"We aren’t expecting the road to be sealed or anything, just maintained to an acceptable and safe standard.”
Ashburton council’s infrastructure and open spaces manager Neil McCann said the gravel the contractors used on Rawles Crossing Rd was basalt, which is a softer material used on some sites to provide a longer-term repair.
"When placed it is soft but when it dries out, [it] provides a good stable surface that requires less maintenance.”
But in some good news for Hodge, McCann confirmed that maintenance metalling for the majority of Rawles Crossing Rd was scheduled for the next financial year in 2025/26.
"This short section was done because it was causing issues.”
A $500,000 annual spending boost for the next three years aims to improve the state of many of the Ashburton District’s unsealed roads.
McCann said the additional funding meant their road metal targeting work should be met this financial year.
Ashburton District's roading network has 1515km of sealed roads and 1102km of unsealed roads.
In 2023-24, the council failed to reach its target of applying 48,000 cubic metres of metal to the unsealed network, only reaching 35,684m³.
Seeing a decline in the state of unsealed roading, councillor Richard Wilson pushed for an additional $500,000 annually for the next three years to help improve the situation.
"You can grade all you like, but without the shingle there the road won’t get any better," Wilson said.
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
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