A Southland man is questioning the sheer numbers of road cones used on a state highway.
The man, who declined to be named, made a video recording of a part of State Highway 6 at Centre Bush, in Central Southland, on two occasions over the weekend — last Friday night and Sunday afternoon.
He tried to count how many road cones were placed in the area but lost count as there were so many, he said.
"There was well over a hundred [at the main road], plus they were also down the side roads as well", he said.
He understood the cones were for work which would start yesterday, but when he was driving by on Sunday, the cones were all over the road and had become a hazard.
"You put these cones up, you've got to maintain them, you know. The whole site was an absolute mess. There [were] cones tipped over all over the place and it was just bloody horrendous.
Questions about the cones were sent to NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, but it did not reply by deadline.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown said earlier this month there was an excessive use of road cones to manage traffic and said the level of temporary traffic management was out of control.
He announced a suite of measures that he said would curb the excessive use of cones on streets.
Mr Brown said the government would begin rolling out a “risk-based” approach to traffic management use which would reduce the number of cones on roads, and require NZTA to publicly report in October on how much money had been spent on temporary traffic management each year for the past three years, and begin quarterly reporting.
The government would also appoint independent members to the Road Efficiency Group to manage the reduction in traffic management expenditure.
