Council has released its road network operations and maintenance contract to the market for tenders.

The contract is worth about $9 million over five years and the document is expected to attract the interest of large national companies as well as some local contractors.

Group Manager of Infrastructure and Open Spaces Neil McCann said submissions of interest in the tender are due by 25 July.

“Then Council will begin a price and quality evaluation process with the aim of awarding the contract by 18 September.”

He said the evaluation would place equal value on price and quality.

After initial scoring, tenderers will then be invited to provide presentations to clarify and highlight aspects of their submission, and the tender evaluation team will be able to ask questions.

A report for Council will be prepared, with a recommended contractor.

Mr McCann said the community had been clear about wanting a high standard for its roads, both sealed and unsealed.

“Our roading network is one of the largest in the country, but parts of it are quite old. Council’s job is to use rates carefully to rebuild some roads and repair others until they can be permanently improved.

“That means we do a lot of communicating with our contractor about providing the best level of service possible with the funding that is available. On our sealed roads especially we have to prioritise our repairs and hold some longer than we would like.”

The new operations and maintenance contract will begin on 1 December 2025.

Separate tenders will be released for reseal and rehabilitation work (capital expenditure) on the district’s roads in the new financial year from 1 July. That work is traditionally undertaken in drier months.

The forward works programme is available in map form on Council’s website and includes:

Rehabilitation (major work totalling about $2.44 million) – Thompsons Track, Ealing Montalto Road, Seafield Road, Longbeach Road, Fords Road.

Reseals and heavy maintenance (totalling about $4.1m) – Coldstream Road, Isleworth Road, Beach Road, Fairfield Road, Frasers Road, Cracroft Maronan Road, Maronan Valetta Road, Mainwarings Road and Pendarves Rakaia Road.

Council also aims to lay 48,000 cubic metres of gravel on unsealed roads during the next financial year.