Council on track to repair all road flood damage by end of year
05 April 2018
Final major contracts to be let this month
Council is on track to complete all road flood-damage repairs by the end of the year, with the final contracts for major repairs expected to be let this month.
“Currently, we expect to complete all road, bridge and stormwater repairs by the end of the year,” Manager Infrastructure Delivery Tim Mackney said. “If we meet this timeline, that’s 21 months post-flood, well short of the 27-month funding window open for Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangement (NDRRA) applications.”
One year on from the record flood of March 2017, Council is nearing the halfway mark in road, bridge and stormwater asset repairs, which accounted for $28.9 million out of the total $49 million damages bill left in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Debbie.
To date, Council has repaired more than 1200 road damage items out of a total of 1550 for a cost of $8 million and has contracts signed for a further $5.5 million in repairs, bringing us to the halfway mark in roads recovery spend.
Two of the five minor road works packages have been completed, with the remainder expected to be completed by the end of July, accounting for 1460 damage items.
Three major road repair packages have been let, with Tweed Valley Way at Blacks Drain completed. The remainder of the major repair contracts is expected to be awarded by Council this month.
In September 2017, Council secured a grant for half the funds needed to replace Byrrill Creek Bridge with a flood-proof, two-lane concrete bridge at a cost of $4.35 million by the end of June next year.
It also secured seven grants to better understand flooding and improve flood-resilience in the shire through additional river and stream gauges, a flood study of South Murwillumbah and new voluntary house purchase and house raising schemes.
All up, Council has completed $18.6 million of repairs to Council-owned assets out of the $49 million damages bill left in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Debbie.
All damaged plant and materials have been replaced; 90 per cent of sportsfield and 77 per cent of waterway infrastructure and riparian zone repairs have been completed. Operational building assets, such as the Buchanan Street Depot, have been repaired and work is continuing on other damaged community buildings.
While water and sewerage services were restored to normal within weeks of the flood, further repairs and improvements worth some $3.5 million are yet to be delivered.
The repair of our flood assets, such as levees, has been contracted out to Public Works Advisory and this work is well under way.
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