The colour is eye-catching. The huge sign ‘SKID TESTING PASS WITH CARE' is attention grabbing. And both parked like Airport Firetrucks in my small rural community. I decided to introduce myself and find out what they are used for. I think you will also appreciate what I learned.
These trucks are three-million dollars EACH and the only TWO in the World.
They visit Aotearoa New Zealand’s shores every year via ship for a specific job. They come from the UK and are used by the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) to determine the health of the national roading network. The findings ultimately determine how taxpayer dollars are prioritised and spent on repairs, unsafe roading sections, and new infrastructure quality control. I was fascinated as I never knew or appreciated the capability used to inspect the national roading network on scale. The trucks drive the length of the country and were in my community to survey a section of resurfacing on the State Highway. The results are used by NZTA to inform ‘quality of work’, which ultimately determines when payment will be made.
“NZTA takes Road Safety seriously” was a statement made and good to know. Bob, as we will call him because I didn’t catch his name, is in charge of delivering the contract and has been visiting NZ and doing the national roading survey for 28-years. “I can see the improvements being made to the highway”.
What is being surveyed? The road surface, undulations and dips/ potholes, the road verges and if the grass is too high. Signage and whether there is enough of it to inform a driver of an approaching intersection for example … why, so the driver has enough time to prepare to brake. They carry out skid testing on the road surface, recreating real life roading conditions with water. As they move through communities from Cape Reinga to Bluff, the data is satellite fed directly to NZTA representatives. Coupled with data NZTA holds about problem areas or serious injury/fatality spots, it all is used to inform priority of spend.
No room for error. Because the data captured by these machines informs transport infrastructure spend, there cannot be a malfunction or error in calculations/information. Therefore, the trucks complete the job in NZ and are then shipped back to the UK where they undergo a ‘rebuild’ as such. Recalibrated, stripped and all components built back as ‘new’.
500km is covered a day. My time was up. They needed to go. One was off to the West Coast and I can’t recall where the other is headed. Either way, if you ever see the Yellow Truck on your journey, you will now know it’s a visitor with an important task.
