Heavy rains earlier this year have left many roads in a shocking state, and it’s not clear how quickly – if ever – taking the Big Lap will ever be smooth driving again.
In New South Wales alone, Regional Roads Minister Sam Farraway says more than 24,000 potholes have been repaired on the state’s roads … but warned that there are plenty more still to go.
“The community, I believe, do understand and appreciate that we are not going to be able to restore the road infrastructure to exactly the way it was overnight,” he said. “We are going to have to work with local government to rebuild some roads that need re-alignment or to acquire land, or we might need to take into account instability with landslips.”
It’s all been a huge strain on local authority manpower and resources. For example, crews from the Eurobodalla Council on the NSW south coast have patched 3,370 square metres of road and filled more than 2,500 potholes in the past three months.
Works manager, Tony Swallow, said crews were working through a backlog of jobs as fast as they could after 10 natural disasters, and a 30% increase in traffic on some local roads, added significant strain to the Shire’s transport network.
“We know where the potholes are, but we can only do so much,” he said. “Further rain quite often undoes some of our work, but also makes it difficult to do more permanent repairs … the best thing drivers can do is to slow down and take it easy.”
Comprehensive road resurfacing is required in some areas however these works are dependent on the availability of contractors, machinery, funds, and of course the weather.
Eurobodalla Council crews have filled more than 2,500 potholes in the past three months. PIC: Narooma News
“Potholes on Princes Highway are the responsibility of Transport for NSW, not Council,” ” Mr Swallow said. “We’ve been in regular contact with them to prioritise repairs in our shire, acknowledging the whole east coast is struggling with the same issue after two years of fires and floods.”
Just before storm and flood events in March, a report found 77% of state-managed roads had exceeded the typical minimum design life of 20 years.
The Regional and Outer Metropolitan Asset and Service Plan said: “Major highways are typically designed for a 40-year pavement life, while minor road pavements generally have a 20-year design life”.
It found around 2,000km or 11.7% of state roads were rated as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.
“[The] 2056 target of zero fatalities and serious trauma is at risk of not being met without significant infrastructure investment to reduce the safety risk and support the adoption of new technology such as connected and autonomous vehicles,” the plan said.
On a recent trip to Sunshine cost hinterland, the poor roads resulted an tear in tyre will. $380 to replace tyre.. Makes travelling expensive.
Slow down, check the age of your tyre carcass, maintain correct pressures, test your van brakes for balanced operation. All part of the normal checks and balances in caravanning.
This climate change is costing councils a fortune in road works if the work gets done or is neglected.
Every road in my shire is potholed.
Recently drove from Coffs Harbour back to SA. My god the state of the roads in NSW was like a third world country! Fortunately I was in a 4WD so no problems. However last time I drove in NSW I was in a Skoda with low profile tyres. Had I driven the Skoda this time, I would have punctured several tyres if I couldn’t zig zag around the potholes in time.
In contrast, the roads in SA are so much better.
Sounds like NSW is a good state to stay out of for quite a while
Of course the wet weather has greatly exacerbated these problems but most road authorities seem to have forgotten how to do basic road maintenance.
Most pavement failures on sealed roads occur in the outer wheel path and are caused because the adjacent table drains are never maintained anymore. They silt up and can no longer fulfill their purpose of keeping water out of the road pavement, hence the failures which when “fixed” will only re-occur without the table drains being maintained.
Similarly with sealed road edge breaks, the adjacent gravel shoulders are never maintained anymore so the gravel wears away and the seal edge breaks away. The road authorities solution is to patch the breaks only to have them re-occur because they haven’t addressed the root cause which is lack of supporting gravel on the road shoulders.