Exceptional weather in the Bay of Plenty has heavily contributed to the success of the region's annual highway maintenance programme, says the NZ Transport Agency.

The NZTA is responsible for maintaining and building highway roads and ensuring the roads and roadsides are safe for drivers to use.

Regional state highways manager Brett Gliddon says this year the warm, dry weather stuck around longer than in previous years, allowing repairs to run smoothly and quickly.

'This year we were able to not only complete the programme but add some more works.”

He says works are prioritised every year by road condition, state highway classification and available funding.

The weather usually influences how much can be achieved during an annual maintenance programme, he says.

Since the year's maintenance programme began in November 2012, 1,050,000 square metres of road have been resurfacing, equal to 260 football fields.

About 268,000 square metres, or 51 shopping malls, of road pavement rehabilitation were undertaken.

A total of 210 tonnes of cement were used in roadside repairs, and 1000 large skip bins were used for resurfacing the roads.

'We really appreciate the patience shown by drivers when these repairs were undertaken,” says Brett.

The next annual maintenance programme will start sometime in November and is expected to end around May/June 2014.