Rodney's Worst Pothole Roads — AT Data Names the Top 15
- PotholeExpert
- Jun 11
- 5 min read
If your teeth have rattled on a back road between Kumeu and Wellsford lately, Auckland Transport's own records say it isn't your imagination. Rodney logged 6,703 pothole dispatches between January 2024 and June 2026 — the most of any area in Auckland — across the rural north's network of valley roads, coast roads and gravel-edged seal from Helensville to Matakana.
We obtained AT's complete pothole dispatch log under LGOIMA (case CAS-1344360-H7J1V4): 26,863 records region-wide, each with road name, response time and outcome. This page is the Rodney cut — the 15 most pothole-plagued roads in the district, plus the numbers behind a finding that should concern anyone who's ever reported a pothole here: 85.9% of public pothole reports in Rodney were closed with no repair recorded, the highest rate in Auckland. AT says it does not record why.
Rodney's entry in our Auckland-wide league table earns the region's worst Report Card grade. Here's the street-level detail.
The 15 worst pothole roads in Rodney (AT's own data, Jan 2024 – Jun 2026)
Ranked by pothole dispatches recorded in AT's log over 29 months:
Wayby Valley Rd (Wellsford) — 186 dispatches: Auckland's most pothole-plagued road, one job every ~5 days. 4% closed no-action
Upper Waiwera Rd (Waiwera) — 170 dispatches, 22% closed no-action
Matakana Valley Rd (Matakana) — 142 dispatches, 13% closed no-action
Coatesville Riverhead Highway — 128 dispatches, 52% closed no-action
Tapu Rd — 124 dispatches, 36% closed no-action
Run Rd — 112 dispatches, 11% closed no-action
Omaha Flats Rd (Omaha) — 110 dispatches, 39% closed no-action
Tauhoa Rd — 105 dispatches, 25% closed no-action
Whangaripo Valley Rd — 94 dispatches, 6% closed no-action
Ahuroa Rd — 94 dispatches, 14% closed no-action
Ararimu Valley Rd — 94 dispatches, 11% closed no-action
Wainui Rd — 90 dispatches, 23% closed no-action
Matua Rd — 89 dispatches, 15% closed no-action
Atkins Rd — 88 dispatches, 2% closed no-action
Waiteitei Rd — 84 dispatches, 7% closed no-action
Method: Auckland Transport pothole dispatch log, released under LGOIMA (case CAS-1344360-H7J1V4, 9 June 2026) — 26,863 records, 1 January 2024 to 3 June 2026, as recorded by AT. "Closed no-action" = AT status "No Action Required": closed with no repair recorded. AT formally declined (LGOIMA s17(e)) to provide reasons — it holds no reason breakdown. Road names as they appear in AT's log. Full regional analysis in our AT pothole data breakdown and the interactive AT Pothole Index.
Report a pothole in Rodney? 86% chance nothing gets dispatched
The number that defines Rodney isn't the dispatch count — it's what happens to public reports. Of 1,989 pothole reports Rodney residents made through AT's call centre and web form, 1,709 — 85.9% — were closed "No Action Required": no repair recorded. That's the highest rate in Auckland by a wide margin (the region-wide average is 45.7%). When we asked AT for the reasons, it declined under LGOIMA section 17(e): the information does not exist. Nobody recorded why.
Some closures will be legitimate — duplicate reports of the same hole, damage below AT's intervention threshold (a pothole officially counts at 100 mm across or 50 mm deep), or roads outside AT's network. But here's the twist in Rodney's data: for the jobs AT does dispatch, it performs well — 99.0% met response targets, with a median response under an hour on completed public reports. Rodney's problem isn't slow crews. It's that six reports in seven end with the file closed and no repair on record — and no reason logged.
Winter makes everything worse: Rodney's dispatches run 1.91× higher June–September, and July 2025 alone logged 573 jobs in the district. The mechanics of that surge are in our pothole season analysis.
Why Rodney's roads break first
Rodney carries Auckland's longest, thinnest rural network: chip seal over decades-old pavement, open shoulders draining into table drains, and a daily diet of stock trucks, milk tankers, quarry metal and logging rigs. Water sits against pavement edges after every front, and water is the engine of every pothole. The same forces show up one row south in Franklin, Auckland's #2 pothole area.
If you live on or near one of the roads above, AT's claims spend tells you what each repair costs the network: about $324 per pothole job on average, $469,733 in itemised claims across Rodney in 29 months — and the regional bill is climbing 26% year on year.
Your driveway runs the same roads' physics — but no one's coming
Every force that breaks Wayby Valley Rd works on the private side of your boundary too: the farm entrance, the long metal-edged drive, the shop forecourt in Warkworth or Helensville. The difference is jurisdictional — AT's responsibility ends at the road reserve. Report a pothole on your own driveway and "no action required" is the system working as designed; private surfaces are the owner's to fix.
That's where we come in: fixed-price asphalt pothole repair from photos, anywhere in Rodney — Warkworth, Wellsford, Helensville, Kumeu and everywhere between. Catch it at the water-pooling stage and it's a few hundred dollars; wait a winter and it's a re-lay.
Frequently asked questions
Which road in Rodney has the most potholes?
Wayby Valley Rd, near Wellsford — 186 pothole dispatches in AT's log between January 2024 and June 2026, the most of any road in Auckland. That's a pothole job roughly every five days for two and a half years.
Why do my pothole reports in Rodney go nowhere?
AT's data shows 85.9% of public pothole reports in Rodney were closed with no repair recorded — the highest rate in Auckland. AT holds no record of the reasons (it declined our LGOIMA request under s17(e)). Duplicates, below-threshold damage and private-land reports explain some of it; nobody can say how much. If the pothole is genuinely on a public road and still there, report it again — our guide to reporting potholes effectively covers what to include.
Does AT actually fix potholes in Rodney?
When a job is dispatched, yes — and fast: 99.0% of Rodney dispatches met their response target, with median response under an hour on completed public reports. The gap is between reporting and dispatch, not dispatch and response.
Who fixes potholes on private driveways in Warkworth, Wellsford or Kumeu?
The property owner — AT maintains the public road reserve only. For private driveways, farm entrances and carparks anywhere in Rodney, send photos through our quote form and you'll have a fixed price within 24 hours.
On a public Rodney road: report it to AT — persistently. On your own driveway, forecourt or farm entrance: that one's yours, and we fix it at a fixed price. Photos in via the photo-quote form — quote back within 24 hours, anywhere in Rodney.
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