Wairarapa roads turning into a 'black sticky mess' as heat takes its toll
Thursday, 7 December 2017
Hot weather has turned several Wairarapa roads into a black, sticky mess, but some of the surfaces were starting to fail before the heat came on.
Truckloads of fine chip and crusher dust have been spread over sections of road to contain melting tar which was spraying up on cars and cyclists.
Te Whiti Rd resident Jo Philps, of Masterton, said she had complained about the road long before the most recent problems.
Not long after it had been laid around six months ago the surface had become very rough and loud and the recent heat turned it into a highway of sticky bitumen.
**READ MORE:
* Bitumen on roads not standing up to heavy traffic and hot weather
* Get your weather forecast here with Stuff**
Masterton District Council spokesman Sam Rossiter-Stead said the selection of the seal type was based on usage and the one used typically produced a coarse texture.
'Smooth texture and noise are not normally considerations on rural sites with high percentages of heavy vehicle traffic,' he said.
On Monday, Philps' new white car was covered with fine spots of tar which was proving difficult to remove.
That evening fine chip had been laid over the tar and when she went for a bike ride the next morning the surface gravel was causing its own problems.
'When trucks and cars drove past it felt like we were being sprayed with tiny missiles. It was a 30kmh zone but nobody was adhering to it,' she said.
Masterton-Castlepoint Rd resident Jane Terpstra said a section of road outside her house was having similar issues.
Pieces of the newly-laid sections of Lees Pakaraka Rd were coming up last week even before the recent heatwave hit. Masterton recorded a high of 29 degrees Celsius on Thursday, according to MetService.
Rossiter-Stead said parts of the road were constructed under 'less than ideal conditions and with difficult site constraints, flushing of the bitumen was not unexpected'.
Bleeding seal was not a problem confined to country roads. In Masterton alone, there were nine streets affected by bitumen bleeding and required chip.
The first weeks of hot weather caused volatiles in the bitumen and entrapped water in the pavement to 'cook out', livening up the bitumen.
Tyre action then brought the bitumen to the surface where it was tracked out and bleeding occurred, Rossiter-Stead said.
Te Whiti Rd resident Kirsty McKenzie often cycled Wairarapa roads and she said after the Te Whiti Rd was resealed a few months ago it was the roughest and noisiest seal she had seen.
'The traffic noise in our house grew ten fold and there is a huge volume of traffic on this road and many, many trucks.Then it all went to tar and now the fine gravel which will hopefully quieten the surface.'
She said the 30kmh speed restrictions were largely ignored and she noticed her bike was scratched up after a ride and she had to shake gravel out of her clothing.