10 Aug 2020

NZTA defends roadbuilding method

From Morning Report, 6:47 am on 10 August 2020

The Transport Agency is defending a design it's rolling out on a billion dollars worth of roads, after its own reviewers found fault with the method.

The review says the design, called Hi-lab, is difficult to build, few contractors have experience with it and it has no proven track record.

However, the agency has already laid larges stretches of it on the Waikato Expressway.

NZTA's chief pavement engineer Gerhard van Blerk developed Hi-lab since 2010 and defends its use.