Rob Gaimster: Concrete New Zealand CEO on concrete roads being cheaper to maintain

Questions are being raised as to whether Aotearoa should take a page from the United States' book when it comes to our roads. 

Concrete New Zealand-commissioned research shows road maintenance costs using the material are up to 62% lower than asphalt. 

It also shows that, on average, concrete roads are 17% cheaper over 40 years. 

Chief Executive, Rob Gaimster told Mike Hosking America has a good model, with half of their roads concrete. 

He says New Zealand has a pothole crisis and is spending billions on roads but is still building in the same way. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're revisiting the idea of concrete roding. We've got an
informetrics report that phone concrete is seventeen percent cheaper in
the long run over timic, bitter, suited to motorways, better
for emissions, and less likely to rip up. Because concrete
New Zealand Boss are rob gamesters will us rob very
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
To you, Yeah, morning Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Last year, about twelve months ago, did an interview with
the Blake from the US who was arguing the same thing.
Are the US a good model if you want to
look at concrete and go there they are? Are they
a good model to look at?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I would say so because of one or two rows
in the US are concrete. And look, we've got a
pothole crisis. We've got traffic cones everywhere, We're spending gazillions
on repairs, and yet we're building mascism in roads the
same way over largely the way we've always done exactly,
and why is that thing to our future maintenance? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
So we're calling for a paradigm shift. We need the
case of concreer roads.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
And if it's sensible, why hasn't it been argued cohesively
coherently and successfully up until now.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
We pride. I think we had a very good meeting
with the Minister fairly recently ouring discussions with the MCTA,
although it's very early days there, but we do support
the government's position online transport, which talks about resilience, value
for money and safety in concrete, not sort threw those

(01:21):
out of the park.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Is it the upper front that's the problem?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
I think it probably is with historic higher discounts actors
in the past. And if you look at the Informatrics
report that does an example which shows that on a
particular example the initial costs probably around twenty percent I
for concrete all over the whole of life. Concrete then
comes in at seventeen percent lower whole of life costs.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Right, And what about the environmental is that major or minor?

Speaker 2 (01:52):
What's happened fairly recently, Mike, is that the UN's intergovernment
intergovernment Panel for Climate Change is recognized the conquer we've
absorbed CO two and that's quite significant. So you've got
big surface areas absorbing CO two as we speak. So
that puts the argument for concrete versus asphalt. We believe
in favor of concrete and we were on journeys to

(02:14):
use decarbonized so we launched our roadmap for net carbon
zero last year and if we deliver on that by
twenty thirty, will have reduced our emissions by forty four percent,
which is pretty significant.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Exactly the report out the other day. By the way,
on concrete generally, we're pouring more than we have been,
but not as much as we used to. How would
you describe the vibe in your industry at the moment.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, so probably eighteen months ago record volumes are going
out of the gate. So we'd have been supplying about
four and a half million cubic meters in twenty twenty two.
Last year down probably twenty percent, so around sort of
three point eight million cuban meters. And by the way,
that's all quality assured concrete general were seen down, particularly

(03:01):
in the residential sector.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Text here for you, concrete roads are terribly noisy. You
say what I say, No, I.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Say, there's a perception that they were with joints. But
these days you can design concrete roads so that they
whisper whisper quiet with new technology, and that's what they're
doing in other jurisdictions, you know, like Australia, for example,
good stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Nice to talk to your Rob, Rob Gamster, Who's the
Concrete New Zealand Boss. Take a look at how the
German auto band has built Mike lived in the States
for years. Mike Concrete roads everywhere, Fabulous to drive on
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