The truth about the National party proposed roads

The total cost of the repairs will be $25.2m with 56 per cent of that cost, or $14.1m, coming from taxpayers.

The expressway has been under repair almost since it opened in February 2017

The leaky Kāpiti expressway's $25 million repair job is running nine months behind schedule, with bad weather blamed for the delay.

Nearly 10 kilometres of the $649m expressway still needs to be fixed and the New Zealand Transport Agency says the work should be completed by June 2020, depending on the weather.

In March 2019 the agency had  repaired 8.9 km and expected the remaining 15.8km would be finished in six months, again depending on the weather. Repair work stopped in July 2019 and began again at the end of September.

The work was progressing well, NZTA Acting Senior Manager, Project Deliver Tony Fisher said.

"There have been delays to the completion of the repair work due to poor weather conditions during the winter months, however we are satisfied that the work is progressing as quickly as possible."

Repairs to the Kapiti Expressway. NZTA has revealed about 49kms of the road needs to be repaired.

The expressway has been under repair almost since it opened in February 2017 when its slow lanes started leaking, resulting in discoloured cracks and changes in the surface texture along the north and southbound lanes.

Water leaking through a seal between the base – or pavement – and the asphalt was to blame. The agency  declined to release the independent review into the failure, citing commercial sensitivity.

The total cost of the repairs will be $25.2m with 56 per cent of that, $14.1m, coming from taxpayers.

Fisher said repairs had involved removing the surface of the road and reapplying a deeper layer of asphalt to increase the depth of the surface and reduce the ability for water penetration from beneath the road pavement.

"The north and south bound right lanes do not appear to require repair works, however the Transport Agency continues to monitor those lanes."

Kāpiti Coast Mayor K Gurunathan said the expressway was a fantastic asset developed by NZTA but the ongoing repairs were a blackspot.

"That's money that could have been used for making the Peka Peka Interchange cost effective."

The agency should release the review, given the high level of public interest in the project. 'People are asking me what was technically wrong and we are still in the dark."

Stuff