Council hits one-third mark in flood road repairs
30 June 2017
Patience needed for long-haul recovery effort
Council has fixed one-third of the road and bridge defects across the shire left by the March floods.
The tally to date is 552 repairs completed out of a total of 1514 defects identified in the immediate aftermath.
“While we’re tracking well on repairing the damage to our roads and bridges, this work is going to go on for the best part of a year just to get the bulk of the less complex repairs done,” Coordinator Flood Restoration Nigel Dobson said.
“We believe we have a good picture of the damage throughout the shire and monitor the deterioration caused by weather and traffic. We ask that the community be patient and to only contact us if they notice new damage or feel the road or section of road has deteriorated to the point that it should be closed as unsafe.
“Of course we want to keep as many roads open and trafficable as possible, so we ask motorists to slow down and take extra caution, especially in the wet as more landslips and rock falls may occur.”
The damages bill from the flood for roads and bridges sits at $23.5 million. Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) should pick up $17.5 million of that tab, leaving Council to fund a shortfall of $6 million out of its planned capital works and maintenance budgets.
“Finding $6 million within our existing budgets means that the knock-on effect of the flood will flow into the next financial year and beyond as we rejig our planned works program to meet our more immediate flood-recovery needs.
“Also, we cannot use our own workforce or plant on flood repairs as we cannot recover these costs through NDRRA funding. This puts a further brake on how much we can achieve and how quickly.”
Council is currently engaging more contractors to help speed the flood restoration works but resources are scarce given the widespread damage that Cyclone Debbie caused down the east coast. The procedures local government must follow when engaging contractors also adds more time to the process.
“Realistically, it will be 12 months before the majority of damages will be fixed with some individual damage items taking two to three years before they are completed.”
Residents wanting to follow our flood repair progress can visit Council’s website at http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/RoadWorks or read Road Wrap, printed every week in the Tweed Link.
For more information on roadworks and road closures, they can visit myroadsinfo.com.au.
For a comprehensive overview of the flood, how it unfolded and the damage it caused, see the March 2017 Flood Report on Council’s website at http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/FloodReport.