Ryan Bridge: The row over road cones is getting piping hot

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

In the Herald this morning, the boss of traffic management firm Traffix laid into the Transport Minister, saying he and Wayne Brown don't understand how the industry works.

He says they don't charge per road cone for work, but rather per worker and truck.

He says the public's abusing his staff on site because of misinformation being spread.

The problem here is an independent report, which we spoke about yesterday, from EY.

It was pretty damning, finding said rules incentivise contractors to cause maximum disruption to maximise profits. NZTA looked at 800 maintenance work sites on highway network and found 145 of them were not needed.

Doesn't that make your blood boil?

And Auckland council alone spends $145m a year on road cones and temporary traffic management.

There was a contractor around the corner from my place who had to dig a small hole on side of road, I couldn't believe they had to actually close the road.

Small, quiet suburban street, down to one lane with stop go signs.

Madness.

I'd never say anything to workers, because it's not their fault, but clearly after the EY report and the message from NZTA, something needs to be fixed, and fast.

Wayne Brown wants the power to set fees and charge penalties if work drags on or wasn't needed in the first place.

I say give it to him.

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