Our pothole promise

Every pothole comes with a promise to fill it fast.

If you report a pothole on one of our busy main roadways, we’ll send someone to fill it and make it safe within 24 hours. For all other sealed roads, we’ll be there within 5 working days.

This is where you come in.

Help us keep our roads safe by letting us know when they need fixing.

Potholes come, potholes go

Last year we filled 6034 potholes across our sealed road network.

Between 20 October and 16 November 2025, we repaired 642 potholes. We completed 97% within our target response times of:

• 24 hours for busy main roads
• 5 working days for other sealed roads.

One pothole filled on an arterial road means thousands of vehicles can enjoy a safer, smoother driving experience every day. This is one of the many ways we’re committed to keeping our city moving.

What we're doing

We manage around 8,000km of local roads. Over 1,000km of these roads have an average of 10,000 vehicle movements per day — these are our high-volume arterial and regional roads.

Our promise is that we’ll repair 95% of potholes on these high-volume roads within 24 hours of notification.

The rest of our network is a little more complex, so you’ll see us out there fixing potholes on all other sealed roads within 5 working days.

There might be a small number that take a little longer. Sometimes our crews need to manage any traffic disruption, plan for a much larger repair and other considerations. We will email to let you know when the pothole has been fixed.

For any potholes or problems on a motorway or state highway, contact NZTA (opens in a new tab). They’ll send someone there to fix it quickly too.

Why we have a pothole promise

Our roads have a shelf life of 10 to 15 years before they need to be replaced. When roads start to age, the signs of wear and tear become more obvious. Potholes are a key sign that the road needs some immediate attention.

Some potholes will reoccur when there’s been lots of rain, which can be incredibly frustrating. We have a big road maintenance programme that works to address this. Every summer we get out and reseal and rebuild just over 400km of our roads.

With summer approaching, we have a plan for preventing potholes from reoccurring. With our pothole promise, we’re out there filling the holes to make roads safe as soon as possible.

We’re dedicated to addressing issues quickly to keep our roads in the best possible condition for everyone. That’s our promise to you. Thanks for helping to keep our roads safe by letting us know when they need fixing.