From behind the wheel of a food-grade tanker bouncing along a pothole-peppered section of State Highway 3, Doug Peach says Taranaki’s highways are in the worst condition he has ever seen.

A people performance manager at Symons Transport and a former police office, Peach was driving between New Plymouth and Eltham to give a trucker’s perspective of the region’s main arterial route.

There have been many complaints about the state of SH3 in Taranaki over recent months, with New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom and Stratford Mayor Neil Volzke among those calling on Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency for action.

In the past few weeks, Waka Kotahi contractors have been carrying out emergency winter repairs.

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This included a full road closure at Tariki, between Inglewood and Stratford, on Tuesday, where a crew removed the damaged seal near the Rugby Road underpass and replaced it with a permanent layer of asphalt.

“The work will continue as weather permits,” a spokesperson said. “With the forecast heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday, it is expected that work will resume again on Friday to complete this job.”

The repairs were meant to have taken place on Sunday, July 24, but a paperwork oversight prevented this.

However, contractors did fix a stretch south of Midhirst, where Symons estimated it had racked up over $2000 to fix blown tyres.

While the higher cab allows him better visibility, there’s not much Peach can do to avoid the potholes that appear in front of him.

“We've got maybe 200mm between the wheels and the white line,” he said. “If I try to manoeuvre around them I’ll cross the centreline and I’ll be putting us, and other drivers, in danger.”

Even spots that are patched shake the cab, while the potholes jolt the seats and throw the steering wheel.

Peach said his entire cab is sitting on an air cushion, as is his seat – it is a necessity when on rough roads all day.

Prior to joining Symons, Peach spent 23 years in the police force.

“So I've worked on New Zealand's roads, the length and breadth of the country, and I hate to say it, but I've never seen roads as bad as we have for a main state highway.

“Okay, Symons is a business, but it's not just us.”

Peach said the roads also take a mental and physical toll on drivers.

“When our drivers break a piece of gear because they’ve gone over a pothole, or a series of potholes, they feel like that’s their fault, even though there was no way they can avoid it.

“You can see the cost of blown tyres and that sort of thing immediately, the cost to suspension you don’t see that straight away, but driving on these roads can expedite it.”

Peach waved at a passing driver, then talked about people who want to get trucks off the roads.

“If that happened we wouldn't be able to get the necessities to supermarkets, to businesses, to people.

“You think about someone whose watertank has run dry and needs filling up. The train doesn't run to everybody's back door. Trucks are a necessity in a region like this.”

After a bumpy ride, the truck arrives back at the Symons depot at Connett Rd West, Bell Block, and Peach went to the lunchroom and introduced a group of high-viz clad truck drivers on smoko.

The consensus in the room was that the roads are bad and getting worse, with one driver saying the surface improves once south of Pātea or heading north out of Taranaki.

A Waka Kotahi spokesperson said the material used for pothole repairs was chosen by individual contractors to get the best results for each job, taking account of local conditions and the time of year when work is undertaken.

“There is a variety of accepted products available, and contractors make assessments of the most appropriate materials for each job.”

As for Peach, he said he would like to see the quality of Taranaki’s roads improved to the same quality of SH1, or even SH3 between Whanganui and Palmerston North.

“That road is far better than this one.”