Mike Seabourne: Tauranga City Council Head of Transport on the outrage over chip seal resurfacing

There's outrage in Papamoa over the news that their asphalt roads will be replaced with chip seal resurfacing.

Tauranga City Council has confirmed the roads were only scheduled for resealing if they were showing early signs of surface deterioration.

The Council's Head of Transport, Mike Seabourne, says resurfacing the roads with asphalt would have been too expensive.

"One of the elements for us is - the asphalt is used in certain circumstances, like on intersections or with heavy vehicles, it's really good for that. But for residential roads, we can use chip seal in a much more cost effective way."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk about one of the great scourges of everyday
life in modern New Zealand chip seal roads. Now, there
is a community in Papamore who are understandably outraged that
the news that their asphalt roads are going to be
replaced with chipseal. Mike Seaborne is the totaling a city
council head of Transport high Mic Hello. Now, these guys
say that the road is fine and it doesn't need work.
Do you disagree? Yeah, we do.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Actually, the road, whilst it may look fine, is up
for renewal, so after a certain amount of time that
we go out and check it and make sure that
the surface is working. But like paint on our house,
we're going to make sure that when you see cracks
and other things like that, you go along and repaint it.
So that's what we're doing it and pub.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Themore Okay, now, how much more expensive as asphalt? Like,
you guys can't afford it, can you?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
No, we can't. And I think that's one of the
things why we do love Ashvelt sorry by chip seal,
is because it's Ashveld is five times more expensive over
the whole of the life. One of the elements for
us is that Ashvelt is used in certain circumstances like
on intersections or with heavy vehicles. It's really good for that.
But for residential roads, we can use chip seal in

(01:06):
a much more cost effective way, which means we can
do more.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Okay, how much does it cost.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
The sites that we're talking about. It depends on the
length of the site, but we are talking sort of
five five times more, and a specific example that the
recent residents came and talk to us about, it's at
least another four hundred thousand dollars more than the chip seal,
which is quite a lot for a very short length.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Now does it not last longer thereby kind of paying
becoming equivalent at some point?

Speaker 2 (01:35):
No, it doesn't, and I think that's why we like
to talk about it from a whole of life's perspective.
If it did, it would be the natural and logical choice.
But it doesn't. It's because when we go along to
reseal it, it only lasts about sort of one and
a half times as long compared to the price. So
for us, chip seals than the actual absolute natural choice.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Okay, Now, the problem with chip seal is obviously, and
this is the point that these guys are made is
that the kids can't ride their skateboards on it, and
it just becomes difficult to kind of you know, for
those kinds of activities. Do you need to consider that though?
When you're doing this with residential roads.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
With roads, we're pretty clear on the purpose of those
roads and unfortunately they're not really designed for skateboards in
the small wheels. Yeah, Normally in these environments we build
the foot paths and we have cycle ways and indeed
we've got skate parks being built out in Papamor and
around in Tarung, So that's how we cater for those customers.
These the jobs of these things is to provide low volume,

(02:36):
so not much traffic, not much heavy traffic, access to
communities and residents. And again just that that cost effectiveness
of it makes it the natural choice.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Now, why, if I mean, why have we ended up
with a situation where we had as felt and now
we're replacing it with the cheaper, crappier product. Is it
because the developers later in the first place.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Well, that's a good question, and I don't think it's crappy,
But anyway, I am a routing question. It's exactly right.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
It's noisier though, Mike, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
It is noisier, absolutely, it's one of the downsides. It's noisier,
and you will cast.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
And you get these stinct little stones kicked up at you.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Sometimes at the beginning it does sort of do that,
and we try and sweep them off as much as
we can. But over time that settles down. It just
sort of compresses itself into the bitumen, so that kind
of goes away. But from that perspective, it is still
a sort of natural choice in that.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, but is it because the developers went all out
spent the big dollars and then when you go to
redo it, you don't have as much money for the
entire place, so you're doing the chip seal. Is that
what's going on?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yep? Pretty much, Particularly in a growth council like ours,
there's a lot of new subdivisions and Ashbolt is a
natural choice for them.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
And so the next question, of course, is this the future.
We don't have a lot of money in the country,
should we get used to the chip seal?

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Well, I'm a roading person, so I'm going to say yes,
and mostly because that means like and do more roads
and I can maintain things and renew them really cost effectively.
So it is the future unless we come up with
new ways, which we are trialing. So we want a
smoother surface, less noisy. So we've got options and trials
on right now to use other products to make to

(04:16):
reduce those disbnefits.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Mike, it has been lovely. Just benefits, Mike, Mike, it's
been lovely to talk to you. Mike Seaborne Totaling, a
city council head of transport.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
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