Cardinia Shire Council is delivering 'Better Local Roads' and last night endorsed its 2022-23 road renewal program for works across 54 roads in 18 townships.
Council will invest $3.122 million towards resurfacing and rehabilitating local council roads as part of its $17.392 million commitment to upgrade, improve and maintain the shire's road network in 2022-2023.
Rehabilitation works involve rebuilding the road pavement along sections of road. Resurfacing works are proactive works to help prevent water damage to the road and help prolong the life of the road.
Cardinia Shire Mayor Councillor Tammy Radford said, "We have heard loud and clear from our community that improving our local roads is important to them. That's why council is prioritising improving road conditions, safety, and connectivity on our existing our road network."
Council currently manages an extensive 1,579 kilometre sealed and unsealed road network, which presents many challenges across each township and a recent report outlines how weather has been council's greatest challenge.
Sustained wet weather has caused defects to increase by 58% on sealed roads and 36% on unsealed roads during winter compared to the normal peak. More than 1,100 road defects were recorded over the 3-month period, resulting in significant maintenance demand.
"Unfortunately, the extreme and consistent wet weather we've seen over recent months has not only contributed to an increase in road issues within the shire, but it's also impacted our crews' ability to complete permanent repairs."
In response to the increased workload, council has:
- deployed additional sealed road maintenance trucks,
- added 2 maintenance trucks,
- reassigned staff to both sealed and unsealed road repairs
- employed contractors to complete drainage work
- employed an additional contractor grader
- hired and retained additional plant to meet functional need
- worked additional hours/days to support the community, and
- prioritised fixing defects on sealed roads to keep the shire moving.
Despite the significant wet weather, crews maintained an average response of 4 business days for correction of sealed road defects and response times within the requirements outlined in the Road Management Plan.
"We're making improvements and have increased our maintenance works to respond to recent weather and road issues, but we know there's still more work to be done and we'll continue to work closely with the state to improve our community's overall road network," Mayor Radford said.
To report a road issue, visit www.cardinia.vic.gov.au/reportroadissue
