An area of potholes on Hendersons Rd in Tinwald poses a risk to motorists as it goes unrepaired, despite complaints.
Hendersons Rd resident Piers Mingham said the deteriorated area of roading necessitated him and fellow motorists to stop before they drove through it. Yet there is no signage or road cones marking the hazard.
It is on the southern edge of Tinwald in a 50kmh zone, near where the road becomes 100kmh.
‘‘If you drive through at 50kmh you would be in the ditch. If you went through there at 100kmh, you would be in A&E, or the morgue,’’ Mingham said.
The area of road, located at the driveway entrance of a trucking yard, has three supersized potholes. They stretch along several metres, while the largest takes up much of the road’s width, measuring wider than 3m.
Mingham said he had phoned the district council to complain about the dangerous area about 10 times over the last three years.
‘‘Normally I ring up and whinge about it, they send somebody out with a bucket of shingle to tip in the hole. They stand in it and drive away,’’ Mingham said.
‘‘As soon as the first truck skews out in the morning, it just comes out again.’’
Minghan said the road had seen higher usage since traffic lights were installed on the highway at Tinwald last year. This was because people heading north coming in to Tinwald would often take the road, which runs parallel to the highway, as a detour when traffic backed up at the lights.
District council group manager of infrastructure and open spaces Neil McCann said repair of the road was scheduled within the next month.
‘‘It’s been on our radar, but other parts of the network have had to take priority,’’ McCann said.
The district council had been aware of the need for repair ‘‘for some time’’.
It had patched the area to try and hold it until the repair could be undertaken.
‘‘It is complicated by the presence of a Chorus fibre cable in the area, and the possibility that it may need to be relocated,’’ McCann said.
The reason for the failure of the road seal was trucks having a tight turning radius into and out of the trucking yard driveway.
He did not answer a question as to why there was no signage or road cones to warn motorists, but said Hendersons Rd was a low volume road, with less than 300 vehicles a day.
