Twirls of graded mud, scraped sideways in Hawke's Bay on the roads. Photo: RNZ / Phil Pennington
Waka Kotahi is warning there will be delays this holiday weekend, particularly around cyclone-hit regions and urges motorists to show patience and be aware of disruption hotspots.
Easter weekend and school holidays will see thousands on the move, using a roading network severely compromised by cyclone damage, including the indefinite closure of State Highway 25A in the Coromandel.
Waka Kotahi's Rob Campbell told Checkpoint people should prepare for some congestion. The organisation's website offers a useful tool to search destinations to determine the best routes and the worst times to travel.
"It's based on the previous year's information," he said.
"So obviously, in those areas of the cyclone that might be slightly different this year, but it still gives you a really good idea of when the busy times are, where the hotspots are, so you can plan your journey and know what to expect."
He said if motorists can avoid peak times, do so and if that was not possible, to be prepared.
"Be patient, expect its going to take longer, enjoy the drive, stop off a few times, make sure you got water and things to do for your kids, things like that. Because the reality is it is going to be busy and there will be delays.
"We have some areas that there were a traffic management in place in terms of single lines in some cases, which is going to add to that unfortunately."
There were particular bottlenecks to look out for, notably State Highway 25A in the Coromandel, which would be closed for some time.
"The rest of the state we're 25 is open, but we've got, particularly at a site in Opoutere - there's a slip there with down to one line, the roads open to all light vehicles, and that includes caravans and people with their boats," Campbell said.
"But we will have reliable traffic management there and there's likely to be delays, the number other places we do have small areas that are going to have a single line and stop go there on quieter areas and probably have less effect, but they are there.
"There's about 20-odd sites that are in that sort of state and all those will add up. Our journeys website will tell you where they are."
He said waiting times would depend on those particular sites and the volumes of traffic on the day, but he predicted it would be potentially half an hour at times.
Campbell said he was worried about people's tolerance levels and understood frustrations, but the organisation was not planning on any special security needs for staff. He asked people to be patient.
"Most people really appreciate that the people on the road are just trying to do their job and do it in the best way they can.
"We do get unfortunately, a very small number of people who can be quite abusive and that's really upsetting for our staff. They're doing their job. Many of them are locals, many of them are affected by these traffic management themselves, so they understand the frustration and they're just doing the best they can."
He said staff would can engage with the police if needed.
There would be road works in a very small number of areas, particularly in Gisborne's Tairāwhiti due to the urgency of repairs, he added.
"They're the sort of works that won't be affecting traffic as it goes by. But in most cases we will stop work to allow the traffic to get as free a flow as it possibly can."
