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Completion of major flood restoration works on Kyogle Road between Uki and Byangum Bridge before Christmas has proven to be a timely win for the Uki community and holiday motorists using the road.
The work marks a significant step forward in Tweed’s ongoing flood restoration program, which continues into 2025. An event celebrating the milestone was held on site this morning.
In late February 2022, the Tweed River ripped a trail of destruction along the road, resulting in 3 major land slips and washing away a large section of Mount Warning Road.
Kyogle Road was reduced to one lane in several locations between Uki and Byangum Bridge and a temporary track was required to be created on Mount Warning Road.
Contractor CMC was engaged to restore the 4 sites, a project with a total cost of $47 million, funded by the Australian and NSW Governments through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
The work involved not only restoring the road to its previous condition before the 2022 floods but also included riparian restoration measures. These included inserting timber pin rows into selected sites on the banks of the Tweed River as ecological and design protection measures.
Restoration work began in February 2024 on all sites and was completed ahead of schedule.
The restoration work across all sites required 11,200 tonnes of armour rock, the construction of 3445 gabion rock baskets which required hand placing of more than 480,000 rocks and the insertion of 528 soil anchors into the banks to secure and stabilise them.
In addition to this, 3800m3 of rock backfill and 163ms of concrete was used to complete the project.
The program has already seen $132 million spent on completed works, with more than $100 million in further funding approvals from the Australian and NSW Government for the next round of restoration works.
Mayor of Tweed Chris Cherry said the completion of the restoration work was wonderful news, not only for the Uki community but users of Kyogle Road.
“The floods of 2022 impacted significantly on the Tweed community, especially those living in our hinterland,” Cr Cherry said.
“Kyogle Road is key connection to Murwillumbah for residents and a popular route connecting the Tweed to our neighbouring shires.
“I would like to thank contractors CMC for their work in restoring Kyogle and Mount Warning Roads and also working with the local community to have this significant project completed ahead of what is a very busy time of the year.”
Contractor CMC had to ensure the road remained open to one lane through the various sites during construction and with the locations close to the Tweed River, environmental measures were put in place to avoid any contamination from the work sites.
Quote from CMC representative, Adon Dinsmore:
CMC Project Manager Adon Dinsmore said the company was proud to be an integral part of this successful project that was delivered within budget and ahead of schedule.
“It has been a great team effort by all stakeholders including Tweed Council and our design partners BG&E and Geotechnical Engineers FSG to ensure the road was opened to road users prior to the busy Christmas break,” Mr Dinsmore said.
“We also want to acknowledge the tremendous support and gratitude shown by the local community where many of our team live and work.
“This is a special part of the world, and we have been able to give back to many of the local community organisations through donations, raffles and good old-fashioned hard work.”
Quotes from NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Disaster Recovery and State Member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin:
“These are vital local roads that also bring many tourists to our region, so it is great to have them fully restored,” Ms Saffin said.
“The landslips were of a kind we have never had before and the preparatory work, let alone the works themselves, presented those charged with fixing them very difficult challenges, and I thank them as well as locals for their forbearance and many suggestions.”
Quote from NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, Jenny Aitchison:
NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, Jenny Aitchison said Northern NSW continues to build back its essential infrastructure following the devasting flood events which caused billions of dollars in damage across the region.
“I’m sure all those who use these roads will appreciate the hard work done by Council and its contractors to repair the damage, assisted by Transport for NSW and the funding supplied by the NSW and Australian Governments,” Ms Aitchison said.
Quote from Federal representative, Justine Elliot:
The Member for Richmond, Justine Elliot said the Tweed region was badly affected by the flood event in 2022, so it was great to see this work to restore roads to their pre-flood condition continues to be completed.
“It’s vital we restore transport links when they have been damaged in natural disasters, with three levels of government working together to ensure residents, businesses and visitors are all able to drive safely on these roads once more,” Ms Elliot said.
For more on the Tweed’s flood restoration program, visit tweed.nsw.gov.au/flood-restoration-works
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