The New South Wales Government has pledged $500 million in new funding as it seeks to fix the state’s flood-ravaged road network.
The ABC reports that local councils will get access to the funding pool to repair hundreds of thousands of potholes.
The regions will receive $280 million, and there will be $220 million for metropolitan areas.
“We have listened to councils and we understand the pressure they are under from many months of wet weather,” said Premier, Dominic Perrottet. “We recognise potholes are a major hazard right now … this critical funding injection will help every council across the state patch up potholes as well as carry out other emergency repair work.”
NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury told the ABC that the half-a-billion-dollar cash injection was a good start.
Many grey nomads have had enough of facing pothole peril. PIC: Cizza
“This is going to take years to fix … but this money will certainly give councils the start they need,” he said. “$500 million will go a long way to fixing a large number of the potholes that have severely damaged the road network in New South Wales.”
The new funding will not be allocated according to the severity of flood damage experienced by local councils but by the total length of roads the council manages.
Bathurst mayor Robert Taylor told the AAP that he welcomed the additional funding.
“I’ve driven out here to Molong and I thought our roads around Bathurst are bad – the ones around here are like dodge ’em cars,” he said. “Everyone desperately needs our roads fixed.”
However, he said that filling potholes was a band-aid solution, with some sections of road needing to be ripped up and re-done.
And Forbes mayor, Phyllis Miller, told the AAP that the cash would help to repair the shire’s 2,000-kilometre local road network, some of which has been underwater for six months.
But she also urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to match the funding.
“Unless we can get this matched by the feds, we’re only going to get half the job done,” she said.
The NRMA’s Fix Our Broken Roads report released in December revealed NSW councils already faced a $1.9 billion backlog in 2020/21 to maintain roads to a safe standard.
Before Christmas, the NSW government said 190,000 potholes had been repaired since February.
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