"Random" ring road repair irks

Excitement over maintenance work on Owairaka's ring road is turning sour for one mountain user.

Auckland city councillor Cathy Casey says about six of the road's worst potholes were fixed, but within two days the bitumen had lifted.

The Mt Albert resident is curious to know the criteria for filling the potholes on the "unsafe road".

"It's the worst feature on the mountain. It looked to me to be a very random allocation of fill. One pothole was filled, another not," she says.

"Is it bad workmanship or bad materials? What is the criteria for doing a job? This is what gives the council the reputation that we don't care about our maunga."

Council's park services manager Mark Bowater says because the extent of repair work was minor, the contractor used cold-mix asphalt that unfortunately failed in two of the pot-holes. Though that had not happened before, hot asphalt will be used in any new pot-hole repairs.

"Sections of the Owairaka Domain ring road are deteriorating in condition, and are currently being planned and prioritised for more extensive replacement within the next two years," he says. Council officers will report in April about whether it is feasible to allocate an $8 million budget for volcanic cone protection.

At present, $2.1m is budgeted for Maungawhau Mt Eden development, and the remaining 22 volcanic cones get $457,000.

The budget has also received attention from local iwi, which recently signed an agreement that would give them ownership and co-management of the natural features with Auckland's new council. Ngati Whatua o Orakei trustee Ngarimu Blair says the present allocation reflects an imbalance between what is promised and what is spent.

"It is extremely worrying we may be left with very little budget to do much.

"The remains of pa on the maunga are as important as Inca ruins or Stonehenge," he says.

Auckland City mayor John Banks met with locals on Saturday at Owairaka to get a better understanding of the problems.

- © Fairfax NZ News