The Ashburton District Council administers the roads in the Ashburton district as the Road Controlling Authority (RCA). This requires that the council will manage the roading network to ensure that the roads provide adequate service to all parts of the district for all road users, which include local, regional and international travellers and commercial operations.
The road network is an essential part of the commercial infrastructure for the Ashburton district as the region’s main economic activity is primary produce for local and international markets and those industries set up to support these market producers. Other users are domestic users, tourists and motorists travelling through the district to places north and south of the Ashburton district.
The size of the Ashburton district roading network places it as the fourth largest roading network managed by a territorial local authority. The network is made up as follows:
- Length of sealed roads 1,493 km
- Length of unsealed roads 1,159 km
In addition, there is 116.5 km of state highways (State Highway 1 – Rakaia River to Rangitata Rivers, and State Highway 77 – Ashburton to Methven to the Rakaia Gorge Bridge). These roads are administered by The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), and do not come under the jurisdiction of the Ashburton District Council. There is a high level of contact with NZTA to ensure continuity of service between the two networks given the large number of interfaces that occur where local roads and state highways meet.
The district council has a Transportation and Parking Management Bylaw and a number of policies relating to the management of the district roading network as follows:
1. Transportation and Parking Management Bylaw - Dairy Cattle on Roads section 1051
2. Policy for maintenance of Low Use Unsealed Roads and/or Unformed Roads
3. Guidelines/Procedures for Prioritising Unsealed Roads for Sealing
4. Policy for installation of stock underpasses
Application Form - Stock Underpass Installation
Memorandum of Encumbrance
5. Policy for supply and installation of road name signs
6. Policy for the use, design, location and supply of traffic signs and markings
7. Policy for the hanging of banners on street poles
8. Street Devlopment Policy - grass berms and street widths
9. Urban subdivision; beautification measures
10. Cattle/stock crossing roads code of practice
11. Policy for control or removal of vegetation that is damaging the district's roads
Copies of these codes of practice can be obtained from the council's operations division.
Funding the cost of operating, maintaining and improving the district roads comes from three main sources; rates (47%), NZTA, which is the Government funding agency, (45%), petrol tax (2.5%), and miscellaneous sources make up the balance.
The large share of the funding from NZTA requires that we manage the operation, maintenance and upgrade of roads in accordance with the National Land Transport Programme agreement between the District Council and NZTA. This agreement sets out a wide range of factors that our road standards are required to conform to in order to obtain the funding assistance. This is regularly measured by condition rating of district roads.