1% - Waikato District Council

65RoadingWhat We DoStrategic focusTo concentrate on maintaining thecurrent road network and projectswhich are mostly growth-drivenRoading focuses on providing and maintaining our district’s roadingnetwork.The activities included in this group are:Roading, corridor maintenance, bridges, footpaths, passenger transport,road safety, network development and maintenance.Roads make up a big percentage of the council’s budgets, in particulartheir maintenance. New Zealand Transport Agency has recentlyinspected our roads and has categorised the overall condition of oursealed roads as above average.We have 2,447 kilometres of local roads in the Waikato district. Theyservice our important rural areas, which make a big contribution to ourlocal economy, so businesses and industries can get their goods andproducts to their market. Roads are also essential for people gettingaround the district, to commute to jobs, school and recreational activities.We have to provide for the increasing number of vehicles on our roads,but this needs to be affordable, as well as meeting people’s presentrequirements and future needs.While our transport system – roads, public transport and cycleways– make a positive contribution to people’s lives and our economicdevelopment, there are some negatives. These include the physicalbarriers the major roads create such as SH1, SH1b and SH 39, portionsof which will become local roads as the new Waikato Expressway isconstructed. While the traffic creates noise and air pollution, safety issuesand water pollution from run-off, these negative effects will be reducedfor some of our towns.Most of the sealed roads throughout the district are of a high quality,but there are also roads that don’t reach the same standard. Becausewe don’t have the funding to have all roads at this high standard, wewill need to accept a compromise between the two levels. Communityfeedback showed a majority (72 per cent of respondents) wanted roadrenewals to stay at the same level. The plan doesn’t allow for any sealextensions, so we can focus on maintaining our existing roads. (You canread more about our approach to prudent management of our roadson page 22).This means that towards the end of the period of this plan, our roadswon’t have the same level of smoothness as now. But, because they aregenerally graded as above average, by the end of this plan they shouldstill be graded as acceptable within the national standards.Strategic Direction ContributionsPrimarySecondary