The NZ Transport Agency and the Far North District Council have commissioned a new stock truck effluent disposal facility at Pakaraka on State Highway 1 between Kawakawa and Kaikohe.
The NZTA and the District Council are sharing the cost of the $140,000 facility. The NZTA has also spent an additional $150,000 improving weighbridge facilities at the site, and reconstructing that section of the highway.
Northland's Regional Transport Committee had identified the need for the facility to provide a service for the growing number of stock trucks on the region's highways and roads.
The NZTA's Regional Director for Auckland and Northland, Stephen Town, says the facility is valuable and necessary for Northland's farming communities, but will benefit all road users as well.
"The safety dividend for drivers will be enormous," Mr Town says. "The spillage of untreated, concentrated effluent onto a state highway is always dangerous and often finds its way into nearby waterways, harming the environment. Spillages create slippery highway surfaces and contribute to the formation of potholes."
Mr Town says the successful collaboration of the NZTA and the Far North District Council has delivered a project that will also contribute to Northland's growing popularity as a holiday destination.
"Keeping the highways cleaner - just like the NZTA's sealing last year of the last section of SH1 to Cape Reinga - helps towards making the drive around Northland more enjoyable for tourists and families on holiday," Mr Town says.
The stock truck effluent disposal facility at Pakaraka complements one opened by the NZTA at Wellsford in Auckland's Rodney district in 2009.
