Submitter
Submission id number: 963490
Submitter name:
denis albert
Organisation
Do you want to speak to Councillors at the hearings?
No
Supporting information
No associated documents with this submission.
Submission
How are we doing? Is there anything you would like to tell us?
dust supression on double hill road has been a joke this last year. It was done far too late , despite heavy logging traffic from the dcc forest estate, then 2 weeks after it was finally done, the road was graded!!! all of the dust supression stuff ended up in the watertables, and the dust was as bad as ever. It was finally redone months later, just before it rained. god certainly knows how to do a better job than the council. Dust is a health problem for both air and water, as all the houses on this road depend on rooftop rainwater. From what I have been able to determine, otta seal is a cheap and nasty type of seal that does not last long. Its longevity is dependent on the road structure being sound. This is certainly not the case for double hill road. The first 100 yards of double hill road has been sealed/repaired repeatedly and failed shortly afterwards with what may be otta seal. This was done very recently, and already there are potholes forming in the repaired sections. This is not surprising given the heavy logging traffic from the dcc forest, and recreational traffic to the DOC areas and the DCC forest at the end of this road. Also, to original sealing was basically just sealed over mud. I know this because before it was sealed, the furniture vans delivering our chattels when we moved in in 2004, got stuck on the hill and had to be hauled to our house with a farmers tractor. The problems of water movement under this section of the road were /and never have been addressed. The road is already potholing, and its only been repaired. So if this is indicative of the performance of otta seal, then it will be pointless to use it as dust supression unless the substructure of the road section in question is strong enough, especially given the pounding that the logging trucks will give this road. It also begs the question, who pays for re-instating the seal when it fails? How long will it be guarranteed for? What are the implications under the consumer guarrantees and fair trading acts?
And why should we pay anyway? we get virtually nothing for our rates as it is, and our road is not only substandard, but downright dangerous, with numerous blind corners, a narrow roadway and surfaces prone to collapse. Council has also approved subdivisions on this road with the proviso that the dwellings are constructed in specified locations, which happen to place the dwellings right in the ideal place to be swamped with dust from the DCC logging trucks. And now the suggestion is that these folk should pay for dust suppression which may turn out to have no longevity at all.
What other ideas should we be thinking about to include in future plans for our city?