How we select the resurfacing treatment for your street
Surveying the roads
When deciding which type of resurfacing to use, we carry out two surveys of all our roads. One survey assesses the condition of the existing surface and records things like cracking, potholes, broken edges and patching. The other survey measures road ‘roughness’ – using a number of lasers attached to a vehicle.
Analysing benefits against costs
The surveys are entered into our computerised road assessment and maintenance management system which helps to identify those sections that need waterproofing and those that need reshaping. A benefit/cost analysis - which takes into account traffic volumes, pavement loadings, and the results of the ‘roughness’ survey - is an important part of the system.
Most of our suburban streets have a flexible structure that need waterproofing every now and again. Chipseal is the best engineering solution for this. At times, we'll cover new chipseal with a layer of asphaltic concrete - but only if our assessment shows the road needs some reshaping as well as waterproofing.
Keeping costs down
The NZ Transport Agency provides about half the funding for the resealing work and Wellington City Council pays the rest.
We try to keep costs to you - as a ratepayer and/or taxpayer - down, while making sure that the best engineering option is chosen in each case.
Sometimes compromises have to be made. For example, chipseal in suburban streets can cause some inconvenience with loose chips and a little more noise. However, if we used the smoother asphaltic concrete, the cost would be 3-5 times higher. As the NZ Transport Agency would most likely not cover this cost, we'd have to pass it on to ratepayers.