Motoring on Park Estate Road is an exercise in defensive driving due to the number of potholes, road signs, cones and unfinished road modifications.

Potholes, cones, a myriad of road signs, a fallen tree, loose gravel, chipped seal and disconnected driveways that go nowhere - Park Estate Road could be the perfect defensive driving training ground.

But residents of the once-rural South Auckland road say the challenge is almost enough to put them off leaving the house.

"I cannot get up that road, well, at the moment. If I don't get it right, I pull the front bumper off," Shane Hunter says, in describing the road's obstacle course-like conditions.

IMOGEN NEALE / STUFF A local resident says the road is so bad that they almost think twice about leaving home.

He and his family live at the end of the road and in the past 18 months Hunter says he's had numerous conversations with Auckland Transport about a short stretch of it.

READ MORE:

* Residents oppose Exclusive Brethren church development

* Chapel case goes to court

* Church to appeal building decision

"They've all told me, basically, 'oh well, there's going to be a lot more development, you'll have to put up with it'."

SUPPLIED Photos taken before developments started show the previous state of Park Estate Road.

A road inspector came out late last year, Hunter says, and promised action but as yet - nothing.

Over the past few years one kilometre of the road, from a Southern Motorway overbridge to the cul-de-sac in semi-rural Rosehill near Papakura, has been a site of intense development.

The Exclusive Brethren built a church there, while the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is building a meeting house to accommodate 1200 people next door, and a civil construction company uses the road for truck access to a neighbouring residential development.

SUPPLIED A photo from 2015, included in a resource consent application, show the previous state of the road.

Hugh Green Ltd is also expected to start work soon on a 97-hectare "mixed housing" development.

Hunter says he understands why the damage is happening to Park Estate Road, through wear and tear. He just wishes they'd fix it as they go, rather than letting the damage snowball.

He says all of the family's vehicles have needed wheel alignment servicing, and his son hit loose metal from a road patch-fix and spun into a fence.

IMOGEN NEALE / STUFF For two weeks these branches have been surrounded by orange traffic cones, reducing the road down to one lane in busy spells.

According to associated resource consents, developers have been, and are, required to make a financial contribution towards the road's upkeep. Compliance is assured via a bond with the Auckland Council.

However, it's unclear when that work has to take place.

In the meantime, fallen branches have been added to the list of obstacles.

IMOGEN NEALE / STUFF One side of the road has potholes, while the other side has coned-off driveways to nowhere yet.

For two weeks the branches, and the cones surrounding them, have reduced one end of the motorway overbridge down to one lane.

Hunter says at night, large numbers of people leaving the church now come to a grinding halt as they meet traffic coming the other way on the brow of the hill.

"It's very distressing to say the least," he says, of the road.

"One side is cordoned off and the other has big hollows."

An Auckland Transport spokesman says: "This is damage caused by the development works and the road will be reconstructed as part of the development works.

"The road is going to be reconstructed as part of the subdivision work, therefore the developer should maintain it until they have completed their work."

AT refers to clauses in the Resource Management Act, section 17, which states 'every person has a duty to avoid, remedy, or mitigate any adverse effect on the environment arising from an activity'.

It also points to section 357 of the Local Government Act, 'Penalties for damage to roads', which states that non-conforming parties could be issued infringements.