Work to improve the road surface and drainage on a section of Christys Road is on target to finish in March.

A 1.8km section of the road, on either side of Winters Road is being rehabilitated with a granular overlay.

That means contractors working for the Ashburton District Council have been digging out the failed pavement and potholes and replacing them with a strong base material.

Infrastructure Services Group Manager Neil McCann said 100m sections of Winters Road, either side of Christys Road, were also being rehabilitated.

“Another part of the work on Christys Road is to take out some of the undulations, or bumps, so we have lifted a couple of sections.

“The road had many pavement failures and was causing issues for motorists.”

Fulton Hogan started the project in January and it is on track to be completed in March. The rehabilitation is costing about $400,000.

Mr McCann said the road would only require minor routine maintenance and reseals for the next 20-25 years.

“The end result will be a better quality and safer road between Seafield Road and Pendarves.”

Council’s works programme for its transportation network involves rehabilitation, resealing, heavy maintenance and watercutting on its sealed roads. The district has 2623km of roads, with 1507km sealed.

Rehabilitation involves the complete reconstruction of a section of road.

Resealing of roads involves overlaying the existing sealed surface with another layer of seal.

Heavy maintenance involves repairing weak sections of pavement by either digging out failures or cement stabilisation.

Watercutting involves using high pressure water to remove excess bitumen from the surface to improve skid resistance.