Kopu roundabout to get spring clean
Written by John Grant on September 22, 2022
CFM’s John Grant has a rant about the state of the Kopu roundabout and congratulates NZTA for finally agreeing to tidy it up.
The first impressions visitors arriving on the Coromandel see on arrival at the Kopu gateway is a messy, overgrown, disgraceful and unkept roundabout. One that reflects poorly on the Coromandel. It’s an NZTA problem and TCDC have not been willing to step in and use ratepayers hard earned money to tidy up NZTA’s mess. Finally though, some good news – NZTA have relented and are sending crews for a ‘spring clean’.
The Kopu roundabout is often described as a shameful and disgraceful welcome to returning residents and visitors to the Coromandel. So is the temporary roundabout just down the road that is clearly marked as being temporary and has remained that way for the last several years but that can be a story for another day. Comments have been flying around social media about the horrible mess on the Kopu roundabout and it’s prompted one mayoral candidate to pledge to personally clean it up if he won the mayoralty. I’m sure many people would have donned their Hi Vis gear (me included) and joined John Freer with their thistle cutters and weed eaters.
However, NZTA have decided that its now time to sort it out. In an email to CFM they say, “We recognise that the vegetation on the Kopu roundabout is enjoying spring a little too much! Please let your listeners know that the roundabout will be mowed and vegetation cleared again prior to Labour weekend. It’s worth noting that Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is working to optimise the maintenance and renewal of our state highways at a time when there is a finite amount of funding available and growing demands on the roading network.
Our key job is to keep our roads safe. Unfortunately this means that vegetation maintenance doesn’t always get prioritised unless it is deemed a safety concern.”
Many will be wondering where the monies collected from fuel excise duty, road user charges (RUC), vehicle and driver registration and licensing, state highway property disposal and leasing and road tolling is going as there doesn’t appear to be much of it spent on Coromandel highways.
At least now that something is to be done – one mayoral candidate will be smiling with todays news, welcome relief that he will not be out cleaning up the weeds, well, at least for the next few months.
