Roading
You can now submit an online enquiry to our Roading team. Be sure to fill in all relevant information to help us respond to you as quickly as possible. Please read our eServices Terms and Conditions.
The Gore District Council maintains 896km of roads. The majority of our roads (538km) are unsealed. There are also 114 bridges and 100km of footpaths in the District.
We fund road maintenance and renewal work from rates as well as receiving a subsidy for specific projects from the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA).
The NZTA is also responsible for state highways in the District.
Who to contact if there is a problem
If you are aware of any issues with roads or footpaths, please tell us, online or phone 03 209 0330.
You will find all the forms required to undertake various activities on our roads, such as applying oil to a metal road, on our Forms page.
Who looks after the roads?
All work on roads in the District is carried out by contractors employed by the Council. Our current contractors are
- Downer - gravel and sealed road maintenance, vegetation control, signs and bridge maintenance
- Otago Power Services - street light maintenance
- Fulton Hogan - pavement marking
Gravel road grading
There are a number of factors that determine how frequently gravel roads are graded. The most important are
- the amount of traffic on the road, and
- weather conditions
Other factors include whether sections of a road are hilly or windy.
Downer inspects the condition of gravel roads on a four, eight or 12 weekly cycle, depending on these factors.
A road is only graded if an assessment shows it needs to be done. This avoids the cost of excessive grading. A compacting roller that is attached to the grader extends the grading cycle.
Gravel road remetalling
The District's roads are split into four blocks for remetalling, with one block remetalled each year. You can find the schedule in our Annual Plan.
Dust suppression
The Council does not carry out dust suppression on our gravel roads. However, residents close to gravel roads are allowed to put vegetable oil, new light fuel or new lubricating oil on short sections of road where dust is an issue. Applying used oil onto a road requires a resource consent from Environment Southland.
The work must be carried out by a contractor and a permit is required. There are conditions to ensure the environment is protected and there are no hazards for road users.
Application form to apply dust suppressant to unsealed roads [PDF, 1.4 MB]
State highways
There are five state highways that service the Gore District, reflecting its position as a hub for travel to Otago, Central Otago, Fiordland and Southland.
They are
- State Highway 1
- State Highway 90
- State Highway 93
- State Highway 94
- State Highway 96
NZTA and its consultant Opus manage the state highways in the District.
However, you can ring the Council about any state highway issues and we will pass the message on to the relevant organisation.
Some activities, such as street lighting and street sweeping, are carried out by the Council with funding from NZTA.
Street lights
Most of the street lights in the District are high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps, which have an orange glow. There are no plans to replace these with the LED lamps as the Council gets power for municipal use at a low rate, courtesy of the Penny Per Unit Agreement.
