Wet Winter Rough On Our Roads

It’s been a battle against the elements to maintain Marlborough’s rural roads this year. This drop-out on Queen Charlotte Drive is part of the $5M worth of road repairs needed after the December 2010 floods.

Reinstating the storm-damaged roads has been a large, on-going task since the December storm, with continuing rain disrupting the work programme and causing more problems as the year unfolded.

The subsequent storms in May and June caused another million dollars’ of damage and some of the work reinstating seal and levelling the slumps can’t be completed until things dry out a bit more. One of the most difficult and expensive areas still to be repaired is the Northbank Road, where the river has eroded the road and it’s going to be necessary to cut back into the hillside to create enough width.