Due to recent flood and storm damage to the road network and the extended call on Council resources to complete necessary temporary repairs to road infrastructure, Murrindindi Shire Council has temporarily suspended its Road Management Plan (RMP), commencing 27 October 2022.
The RMP determines the service levels that meet the community's "reasonable" expectations of day-to-day maintenance and ongoing asset performance. The RMP also allows for temporary suspensions during natural disasters, due to a need to commit or redeploy Council staff or resources elsewhere to the meet the needs of the community.
Council's CEO Livia Bonazzi said like other councils in flood-affected parts of Victoria, and in line with advice from the Municipal Association of Victoria, Council has made the important decision to temporarily suspend its RMP for as short a period as possible, to prioritise repairs to flood-damaged roads.
'There is widespread damage to our road network, particularly our unsealed roads, bridges, culverts and drainage, and infrastructure and community assets', said Ms. Bonazzi.
'In two weeks, since the beginning of the October 2022 Floods, we have received over 250 requests related to damage caused by the floods – this equates to over a month's worth of requests and includes everything from clearing debris, temporary urgent repair works to our roads and pothole repairs.
'Council's Operations staff are being primarily deployed to emergency repair works and Council's contractors will be dedicated to high priority clean up works over the coming months.
'We are also in the process of assessing our roads, bridges, trees and infrastructure, with assistance from neighbouring Councils, City of Whittlesea and Yarra Ranges Council. There are many popular roads across our Shire which have been significantly impacted, including Whanregarwen Road, King Parrot Creek Road, Break Oday Road, Back Eildon Road, Dropmore Road and Ghin Ghin Road. These roads along with many others will need to be prioritised for repair.
'During this period of suspension, we would like to reassure the community that we will continue to make every effort to adhere to the RMP response times, but during a natural disaster it is not feasible for us to meet the service levels the community would normally expect of us, including attending to requests within "reasonable" timeframes', Ms. Bonazzi added.
'We will continue to attend requests for pothole repairs, and we will prioritise unsealed road maintenance such as grading and drainage repairs. However, any work that is deemed non-essential will be paused.
'I'd like to thank the community for their understanding and for being patient with us, while we navigate our way through the aftermath of this natural disaster. With more rain on the way, we are still on high alert for further flooding, and we are aware that recovering from this event will take us considerable time and effort.
'If you are frustrated or concerned we have not yet been able to attend to your request, please allow us some additional time. If you'd like an update on timeframes for your request, I'd encourage to you give us a call in the first instance on 5772 0333 and ask to speak to someone in our Operations team.
'Council will continually assess the situation to determine which parts of the RMP can be reenacted and which works we can resume', Ms. Bonazzi added.
