Literally nowhere else in the world are the roads lined with cones as in New Zealand.
A week back as a research exercise, with one mate driving and a senior professional and me observing, we drove 60 miles up the new state highway, turning back once we’d recorded 70 alleged “workmen”. Here are our factual findings.
- Of the 70 red vested “workers”, four were actually doing something, if in the case of those four, the two holding a shovel constitutes activity.
- Of the remaining 66, eight were watching the spade-holders and 56 were either staring at, or talking into cell-phones.
- Parked along the road there were on average 3 large pieces of machinery for every red-vested pretend worker. A fifth of them had flashing roof-top lights. One in every 12 had a cell-phonist sitting in them.
- Our estimate was that each collection of “workers” had cones on both sides of the road extending circa 500 metres.
When people malign Muldoon as an interventionist I point out it wasn’t all bad. There is absolutely no way Rob would have tolerated this ludicrous situation without putting a stop to it.
Not just our highway but our CBDs are littered with cones and their associated cell-phonists. Even crazier, drive into empty country roads and everywhere they too have miles of cones narrowing the roads, only nearly always with no associated “workers”.
This is unbelievable madness and further testimony to the sheer hopelessness of the government in turning a blind eye to it.
22 Comments
The cone makers win. Absolutely bloody bonkers. NZ is stuffed under this cabal of Labour incompetents. It will take a long time to heal.
So true, the abject failure starts at the top, we’ve lost our way and our national pride. Thanks Labour!
Bob, you aren’t allowed to spy on people like that. It’s very naughty of you.
You have hit the nail on the head on many occasions Sir Bob, but this is yet another obvious sign that we are being robbed of our taxes to make as many mates wealthy as possible in the short time that the current muppets have in power. we are continuously told that they have put millions of dollars into all the problem areas, which is partly true, however they simply throw OUR money (Tax Payers) money up in the air in the general direction of the problem and hope that some of the correct people catch a small amount of it. There is no planned solutions, no accountability when nothing changes, Our spending and thus borrowing is out of control yet we are in a bad place in a large number of basic areas, Roads, Health, Education, etc.etc.
They just continue patting themselves on the back as to how good thy are, blame failures on everyone else and Covid, then quote statistics (which we all know can tell whatever story the reader wants to read with enough jiggling) and quote that they are making inroads. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I really hope that the habitual labour voters can see the real story for themselves and learn that
“The problem with Socialism is that you soon run out of other peoples money to give away to buy votes”
Also a smart quote from the Infamous David Attenborough:
If you put 100 black ants and 100 fire ants into a glass jar.
Nothing will happen.
However if you shake the jar, the Black ants believe the fire ants are the enemy and vice versa and a bloodbath ensues.
Men vs Women
Black vs White
Science vs Faith
Young vs Old
etc.
When in fact the real enemy is the one that shook the jar.
Before we all fight each other we must ask ourselves “WHO SHOOk the Jar”
Sounds like a fun day you had there Sir Bob. You are of course quite correct – we are OVER road cones.
But I need to warn you that the highly decorated clown from the NZH – commonly referred to as one Simon Wilson – has a delightful piece in todays Herald espousing the overall wonderfulness of road cones. In it he lists all the reasons why they are “good” for us.
Clearly in this article he has confirmed what I’ve suspected all along, and that is with his continual whining, whinging articles, that he’s either barking mad, a masochist or both.
All of them happy and contented Labor supporters doing their utmost for the productivity of the country
The truth is that the Health & Safety and Orange Cone industry dwarf the roadmaking and repair industry by 20 to 1 ?. Its a racket with only one cause, money and greed coupled with a compliant benefactor
Bob. You went the wrong way. SH2 from Carterton to Masterton is now ground zero for this stupidity. There’s a three year project to build three roundabouts. The deadwood at Waka Kotahi have reduced the speed limit to 50kph for a couple of kms either side and saturated the area with cones. Of course the halfwits, terrified of telling a cop to ‘get a life’ stick religiously to 48kph. Workers? After multiple trips the most I’ve ever seen ‘on the job’ is two. But driving attenuator trucks – frequently slowing the traffic to a ridiculous 10kph – often in the evening – at least eight employees on their bums.
This is nothing new. In the 1930’s, during a parliamentary debate the eventual Minister of Works Bob Semple said “If a Ministry of Works employee was paid to feed a man porridge with a shovel, he’d die of starvation.”
My residential street central Auckland has had the Stormwater line replaced. Part of the separation of waste water and stormwater – which needs doing in central Auckland .Its two roads of probably 1 km in total .
On the two streets nearly two and a half years have passed with cones and workmen. After a full year and a half of road blockages and full time work of up to 20 people and numerous machines , we thought it had finally finished but alas they keep coming back.
Every 3months they block off the road and open up more holes to redo things. The traffic wardens, as you note, now just look at their phones , at times making dance tik toks. One lady often just ignored the traffic as she had her back to it .
I walked past a few weeks ago and they were back , there were 14 workers in two lots, and of them actually ,only one person in each lot was working. The rest watching or talking.
They did have a reason on one road to have taken so long – after they nearly finished they were capping the new line with concrete . Unfortunately, it found its way into the new pipe . By the time they had realised , alot of concrete was “disappearing ” a significant amount of trucks had discharged concrete .
I now understand why its cost so much for all these works by watching it first hand . They have now blocked off , dug up , and ucked around with some of the same areas at least three times now . You cant make this stuff up.
Bring on Wayne Brown.
Hahaha, you’re spot on Sir Robert, not only are these blasted road cones an eyesore and driving hazard, but also they are an abominable environmental pollutant that get into our waterways and drains throughout NZ along with the copious quantities of barrier tape and other so called health and safety paraphernalia. It’s about time these noble (so called) environmental activists sat outside work safe head quarters protesting against there (work safes) role in polluting our waterways and environment .
Haha Bob, I was just thinking about you and cone land not one hour ago while driving from Havelock to Blenheim.
They must be going to stand around and look at a pothole today, there were 3 or 4 sets of traffic lights being setup, and road cones by the truckload, at least 2 if not 3 truckloads.
They have put road cones down the road side almost touching each other, I kid you not.
Now someone may be able to substantiate this, but a mate who works for one of the local roading companies told me that one of the most well known roading companies, charge $8 per road cone per day for using them.
It is also a wonder they don’t have to put Waka Kotahi stickers on them, another subject, but I wonder how much renaming the NZTA has cost and how many potholes we could have fixed for the same.
The maunfacturing of those cones must be a great business however.
It gets worse. Count the number of ‘consultants’ feeding off councils.
The road cones are spaced further apart and are more visible.
Many of these oft maligned consultants are necessary. They carry out (usually more efficiently and therefore at lower cost to the rate/tax paying public) the design tasks once performed in house by councils.
Are these the ones whose design skills result in the southern half of the Transmission Gully Road surface being rough as guts?
Or new roads being resurfaced within 3 months.
Apparently the roading contractors ordered millions of the cones, and when they arrived they found that they had no storage areas for such a huge number.
One bright spark suggested that they store the cones on the roads, as they have insufficient warehouse space, so that is what happened.
In Titirangi. where I live a set of steps plus a new toilet block are in the process of being installed – not yet finished/operating. This process has so far taken at least 3 -4 months. (That’s months not weeks) the toilet block was a prefabricated unit that was lifted off a truck. However both projects have required teams of hi-vizzed vested workers, countless cell phone conversations, cones “for Africa” & in the case of the steps they have constructed a galvanised steel monster which required some of the road closed for half a day while it was lowered into place by a rented crane. Metres of hired fencing & signs complete the picture. This is the Auckland City Council under Goff at it’s best. The estimated cost for the toilets alone is $500,000 which I estimate a private contractor could have provided for under $100,000. The steps cost is unknown, but am sure the same wasteful expenditures ratio would apply. Never mind it’s only ratepayer’s $.
Aotearoadcone….
Of course its not the political party in power today who caused conamania.
But as an over zealous interpretation o of Health and safety laws by slavishly scared bureaucrats who love to manipulate and interpret any legislation so they can lord it over the average bloke or blokesses.
These idiots thrive on this stupid idea of power.
Trump had it right when he erased over 6,000 regulations that were stupid restrictions on the populace.
Currently visiting Cambodia where a road cone is such a rarity that I don’t think I have seen more than a handful.
For a supposedly corrupt society(Cambodia) it is outbid for stupidly in laws and their interpretation by nameless/faceless small minded employees of the Civil service in New Zealand. When I return to NZ, I feel I have walked in to a rigid police state.
I think when those protestors glued themselves to the road near Wellington, they should have removed one or two of them to allow one lane through, then put cones round the rest of them and go home. They would have got some nice feedback from the drivers they had delayed.
The same rot has set in here in Victoria.
Cones everywhere and no one actually doing anything.
Its exacerbated by the Vic rains which clearly mean no work must happen.
A make work rort to keep the labour unions happy.
Put the tenders out to Asian companies…
The other month when it rained and slips were happening all over the show, one such slip was on the south bound on ramp at Churtin Park.
What did they do? Closed a lane of the motorway. For absolutely no reason as there was no slip on the motorway, no working machinery on the motorway, nothing.
Utter clowns.