Roading standard unacceptable

The Queenstown Lakes District Council will investigate events that led to unacceptable roading standards being applied on a road in the Wakatipu Basin, last week.

“There are two issues here of concern, one is that dust suppression oiling was applied to Morvern Ferry Road on Wednesday and on the Friday the road was being resurfaced, that is not acceptable,” QLDC chief executive Duncan Field said.

The second issue related to the material used in the resurfacing of the road.

“We had residents from Morvern Ferry Road this morning present a sample of the material used on the road and again I can assure the residents and the community that this also is not acceptable,” Mr Field said.

The material, mixed with gravel, included wire, nails and plastic.

As a matter of some urgency the council had asked its roading contractor, Downer EDI Works to review its systems.
“We have requested a comprehensive quality plan to ensure there is no repeat of either of these two substandard occurrences’ Mr Field said.

For its part, Downer was investigating how the unacceptable material passed through its screening processes. The entire procedure would be thoroughly workshopped on Monday by the company.

“I am glad to say that Downer has accepted responsibility and offered to re-oil the ‘cleaned’ resurfacing at no cost to the community,” Mr Field said.

He intended, together with Utilities chairman John Mann, QLDC roading manager Ian Marshall and a representative from the contractor to meet with residents to discuss their concerns further.

“Their concerns are entirely justified and I am grateful to them for flagging what are clearly unacceptable levels of service. It will not be repeated,” Mr Field said.