South Waikato District Council's 538 kilometres of road network, if laid end-to-end, would reach from Tīrau to Wellington. The surface area totals about 3.55million square metres, equivalent to 330 rugby fields!
The total roading network consists of local roads, State Highways (under the care of the New Zealand Transport Agency), private roads (mainly forestry) and unformed roads (paper roads).
In addition to the road itself, roading infrastructure includes bridges and large culverts, signs and road markings, stock underpassess, footpaths, street lighting, drainage, railings and public carparks.
Council currently manages 427.6km of rural road (of which 30.2km is maintained by forestry organisations) and 112.2km of urban roading.
The roading activity also includes 2,158 street lights, 45 bridges and large culverts, 170.6km of footpaths, 3,030 signs and 38 stock underpasses.
The network is internally managed by Council's transportation team, called Southtech. Southtech used to be a separate business unit of Council, but is now integrated within Council.
The majority of the roading function is funded by a 46:54 percent split between Council (ratepayers) and the New Zealand Transport Agency (taxpayers) with NZTA paying the larger share. A small percentage of the roading activity is fully funded by Council.
South Waikato District Council Land Transport Asset Management Plan
