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Speaker 1: The pothole Police is coming to a place near you.

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Speaker 1: That's the promise from the Transport Minister today. Simon Brown

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Speaker 1: says almost four billion dollars in total will be spent

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Speaker 1: on pothole prevention and repair on state highways and local

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Speaker 1: roads over the next three years. The biggest local roads

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Speaker 1: winners by region are Auckland almost half a billion dollars alone,

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Speaker 1: Why Cut on more than two hundred million, Canterbury one

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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty eight million, in Northland on one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty million. Simon Brown is the Transport Minister and

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Speaker 1: as with us this evening, Good evening Minister.

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Speaker 2: Good evening, Jack.

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Speaker 1: So what is the money actually going to be spent on.

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Speaker 2: Well, this is the pothole Prevention Fund, so it's going

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Speaker 2: to go into those activities focused on preventing potholes from

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Speaker 2: per forming in the first place. That's resealing the road,

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Speaker 2: it's rehabilitating it, which means digging it up and renewing

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Speaker 2: the pavement, and it's the important drainage work that's required

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Speaker 2: along the sides of the roads to stop water getting

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Speaker 2: into the roading surface and causing potholes to form. So

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Speaker 2: this is about preventing potholes. It's about resealing the roads.

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Speaker 2: It's about making sure that we can get care He

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Speaker 2: was where they need to go quickly and safely.

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Speaker 1: To be totally clear, is it also about repairing the potholes.

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Speaker 2: Well, look absolutely, but the real focus here is preventing

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Speaker 2: them oftenly. That's what we need to be doing, is

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Speaker 2: preventing them. That's the resealing of the roads, rehabilitating them. Yes,

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Speaker 2: we do also need to make sure when potholes do

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Speaker 2: form that we get out there quickly and also make

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Speaker 2: sure that they are repaired in a timely fashion to

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Speaker 2: keep motorists safe on the roads. But the real focus

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Speaker 2: here is on those really core activities which we want

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Speaker 2: MZTA and local councils focused on, which is resealing, rehabilitating

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Speaker 2: and getting that water out of the roads by investing

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Speaker 2: in the drainage to protect that asset and keep New

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Speaker 2: Zealander safe on the road.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think everyone can see that it makes a

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Speaker 1: lot of sense to actually invest in the things that

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Speaker 1: prevent from the potholes from forming in the first place.

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Speaker 1: So last year you reckon sixty two thousand potholes. New

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Speaker 1: Zealand had our highest number in ten years. How do

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Speaker 1: they work that out?

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Speaker 2: Well, that was how many were recorded by nztas needing

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Speaker 2: to be repaired on the on the state highway network

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Speaker 2: last year, so their contractors are obviously out there all

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Speaker 2: the time fixing the roads and getting fixing potholes as

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Speaker 2: quickly as they can. That was a record number last

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Speaker 2: year and that shows that the fact is that we've

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Speaker 2: got a growing number of potholes on the road, which

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Speaker 2: means we're not doing a good enough job of actually resealing,

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Speaker 2: rehabilitating and doing the drainage work to prevent them fromforming

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Speaker 2: in the first place. So that's why the focus here

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Speaker 2: is ring fencing this fund into those activities which prevent

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Speaker 2: those potholes performing and to make sure our roads are

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Speaker 2: safe to drive on.

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Speaker 1: So what information informed decisions around which regions got the

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Speaker 1: biggest increase in their allocated funding.

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Speaker 2: Well, ultimately the New Zealand Transport Agencies Board makes these decisions.

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Speaker 2: They are responsible for looking at the asset management plans

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Speaker 2: that councils and the agency puts forward and working out

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Speaker 2: where the need is and then allocating the funds according

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Speaker 2: to that need. So that's the agency's board. They look

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Speaker 2: through the asset management plans, they test that, they look

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Speaker 2: at what's been required in the past, what the issues

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Speaker 2: are that are happening, and then they make those allocations

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Speaker 2: based on that evidence.

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Speaker 1: So describe to us the state of New Zealand's roads

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Speaker 1: three years from now.

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Speaker 2: Well, ultimately it's about making sure we've got a greater

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Speaker 2: number of kilometers of road being resealed each year and

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Speaker 2: rehabilitated each year, more investment in the drainage which will

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Speaker 2: see a reduction in the number of potholes on our roads,

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Speaker 2: safer to drive on, and ultimately it's about good asset management.

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Speaker 2: That's what it comes down to. We haven't been doing

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Speaker 2: good asset management in recent years. We've taken the eye

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Speaker 2: off the ball and it's about making sure there's a

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Speaker 2: clear pipeline for agency and local counts to invest in

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Speaker 2: their core business of protecting that asset and making sure

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Speaker 2: it's safe to drive on for New Zealanders.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for your time this evening, We appreciate it, Transport

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Speaker 1: Minister Simeon Brown.

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