Late last year a number of people who cycle frequently on Symonds St reported to our Facebook that the bus/bike lane near K’ Rd was unsafe for cycling because of cracks and holes in the road surface. We don’t usually take up road maintenance concerns on behalf of individual cyclists as we simply don’t have time (it’s more effective to encourage everyone to log in their own items on AT’s action line as that provides practical monitoring across the network. Here’s the link again if you need it).
However, because of the extent of the road damage and importance of Symonds St in the network, we copied all the comments to AT’s action line and advised that we endorsed the concerns. (We owe AT an apology because some of the comments were pretty… frank…, so we should have edited them a bit).
AT’s maintenance team checked out the issue, and made some immediate repairs. They went one step further, which is the reason for this post. AT’s maintenance engineer for the Isthmus rang to talk about the road damage and to outline his intentions for more substantial repairs. He was even kind enough to send us some photos and written comments for this blog post:
” Please find attached correspondence with photos of the areas of Symonds St that Auckland Transport patch repaired in late November. If you study the photos you can clearly see the cracks that indicate areas of broken concrete slab foundations under the asphalt surface.
There are two options to repair these areas. Either concrete slab replacement or concrete slab removal and replaced with structural asphalt. The preferred repair treatment is concrete slab replacement. However this repair method is time consuming/disruptive and will involve excavating sections of the broken slab, doweling and pouring new concrete, allowing time to cure, final asphalt resurfacing and line marking reinstatement.
As we discussed, the work will need to be undertaken at a time acceptable to Public Transport and other stakeholders within the work area. Realistically, I think the work will have to occur over several weekends. I will keep you informed on programme development so you can consult with the cycling community and provide input as necessary.
I will monitor the damaged areas to ensure they are safe for cyclists until the permanent renewal works are completed. Feel free to call me to report work that requires immediate attention. “
Here’s the photo of November’s patch repairs:
We will be in touch again when we hear about the programming of the more comprehensive repairs. In the meantime, it’s a pleasure to be able to acknowledge the prompt response to our service request and the professional quality of the communication.
Thanks and well done, AT Maintenance team.
