Residents of a rural road in Te Puke have been struggling for 10 years to get safety improvements to their road.

Leyton Dowman has lived on No 3 Road for 15 years and his father Jim has been there 18. The pair says they have been actively pushing the Western Bay of Plenty District Council for changes for 10 years.

The two main issues are the width of the road and the gravel washout that happens when it rains, says Leyton.

'It [the road] just washes out. Every time there's a good rain, that's it, we are guaranteed to have almost impassable areas.”

The first 12 kilometres of No 3 Road is sealed and the rest is gravel, the Dowmans live on the gravel section along with 26 other properties.

Eighteen years ago it was in the council's five year plan to seal the road and they're still waiting, says Leyton.

'We can live with gravel road, that's not the issue. It's more this area here where it just keeps on washing out.”

In bad weather both Leyton and Jim will ensure they have a chainsaw and shovel in their vehicles so they can get out or back home.

Not only are there washouts but often trees fall across the road, says Jim.

The other issue the Dowmans experience in bad weather is access to their drive. A culvert just up from their driveway blocks and overflows causing around 200mls of silt and rock to build up.

No 3 Road should be around 4.8m wide but 'you'd be lucky if it was 4m” in some places, which makes passing difficult when there are large trucks and the school bus, says Leyton.

'When you've got a truck and a bus and a car with a big trailer and things like that you simply can't get by each other.”

Water runoff has created channels that have narrowed the road. John Borren/SunLive.

With kiwifruit orchards along the road there are trucks using it daily during kiwifruit season, he says.

Leyton estimates around 1 million trays of kiwifruit come from the orchards on the road.

Compounding the narrowness is a ditch and ridge on the downhill side of the road that runs along the river, which was created by the council.

'The idea, I think, was to let the water wash down through the rocks and run away, but all it did was fill with silt over time and do nothing and it just narrowed the carriageway,” says Leyton.

'Instead of having the water fall away to where it can disappear and dissipate down to the river, it gets washed over and then it just pools up and there's so much water that it just tears a hole through the road.”

Asked why the ridge was created, Western Bay of Plenty District Council senior transportation engineer Calum McLean says: 'Like all gravel roads, heavy rain can start to wash the road away, creating an uneven surface that's dangerous for drivers.

'We've placed some broken rock on the downhill section approaching the bridge to minimise the potential damage from heavy rain and to keep people safe.”

A deep drop off on the side on No 3 Road. John Borren/SunLive.

The ditch also has some large drop offs and in one area it's at least 1m deep. Leyton says you'd break an axle if a car drove into it.

McLean says: 'The risk to road users from hazards such as drop-offs will be assessed during the design process for the seal extension upgrade.

'Treatments to improve safety for road users will be included in the design, where necessary.”

He says the council planned to start construction of the road sealing and upgrade project for No. 3 Road in late 2024 - early 2025.

'Part of the upcoming road sealing and upgrade will see us widen the road to a minimum of 5m.”

McLean explained why the final section of the road wasn't sealed earlier.

'With a district like ours that has many unsealed roads, we have to be practical and prioritise which work is done first.

'Our records indicate that In 2005, No. 3 Road was ranked 86 on the seal extension prioritisation list meaning that 130km of road elsewhere in the district was ranked higher.

'For this reason, No 3 Road has not been included in any seal extension programme until now.

'Council currently reviews the district's seal extension delivery programme every three years.”

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