The May 2025 flood resulted in over 28,000 defects to the MidCoast road network, with Council crews and contractors continuing flood recovery works.
Assessment of 680 bridges, 1,800km of unsealed roads and 1,800km of sealed roads has been undertaken so far.
Approximately $34m of emergency works and immediate reconstruction works have been completed to date. It is estimated that a further $18m will have been undertaken by the end of December.
General Manager Adrian Panuccio said that the recovery efforts are ongoing and will take a number of years to fully complete.
"While we had funds available for emergency works, we need to work with the NSW Reconstruction Authority to seek funding for the many major road and bridge repairs still needed across our community," said Mr Panuccio.
"The funding requirements are strict and we need to prove the damage we claim is flood related.
"A big help in achieving this is the Ai camera technology we've been using on recycling collection trucks. This means that wherever those trucks travel, we have clear records of road conditions before and after the May 2025 flood."
Council crews have done an initial clean up and worked to restore access to properties. This included clearing landslip debris, repairing bridge approaches, clearing vegetation and sediment, unblocking culverts and stormwater pipes, repairing potholes and causeways and grading unsealed roads.
Discussions are underway with the NSW Reconstruction Authority on eligible designs and alignments for the Bight, Tiri and Mt Coxcomb bridges. Final repairs are underway for Wilsons bridge, while Tibbuc (Fordhams) Creek Bridge has been load limited pending design options for repairs or replacement of the bridge, subject to funding. Currently a total of 41 other bridges have been identified for further repairs, with a further 116 still under assessment.
To date 55 roadside land slips have been identified with further assessments underway. Current estimates indicate a total cost of $62m for reconstruction of the currently identified slips. Council anticipates that further slips will be discovered following a detailed assessment of road damage.
The most significant land slip is on Scone Road. The repair of this slip is nearing completion, with Scone Road scheduled to reopen on Wednesday 17 December. Roadwork schedules are always subject to change due to weather and other factors, so check MidCoast Council's Road Hub or Live Traffic for updates when planning your journey. Although the road will reopen, there are other slips on Scone Road that still require permanent restoration. There are changed traffic conditions at these sites, so please drive to the conditions and follow warning signs. Construction at other slip locations will commence in 2026 and are being fully investigated and assessed for resilient reconstruction treatments. These flood recovery works are funded by Federal Government Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
Overall, damage assessments of sealed roads indicate that 2% of the MidCoast network is severely impacted and 26% has had moderate impact. Council is seeking flood recovery funding for the damaged sections of road.
Council has now had funding approval for a significant number of unsealed roads and has been maximising the repair works up to the Christmas break. Details of flood recovery works on individual roads are in the fortnightly update on Council's Roads Hub.
To keep updated, visit https://www.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/roads-hub and https://www.livetraffic.com
