The National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA) has called for urgent action to help NSW clear a total of $3.2 billion in overdue repairs and maintenance necessary to make roads safe.
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“Councils in the south-east carry an infrastructure backlog burden of more than $241 million,” NRMA local director, Kate Lundy, said.
While both the NSW and federal governments have increased spending on roads in regional areas, the revenue streams available to local councils are not adequate to maintain existing road infrastructure to a satisfactory standard.
Budgetary pressures on local councils are also affecting their ability to directly fund road improvements.
Dangerous roads are a daily problem for Towamba locals, with years of neglect resulting in regular car accidents.
“The Towamba-Eden Road has been a problem for a long time,” Tony Ovington, President of the Towamba Progress Association and RFS, confirmed.
“In 1986 the council promised the road would be tarred, as well as other roads in town, but they’ve obviously forgotten.
"They started repairs on one kilometre of road near the mountain, but left it unpaved.
"When the rain hit a month ago, there was a landslide and the road was blocked for 24 hours.
"It’s been left untarred and is now falling apart again, with corrugations, potholes, greasy clay surfaces, and blocked side drains.”
The Towamba and Eden communities are so used to accidents they just help themselves when a car slips off the road.
“If we involve the police, there’s a risk of someone being fined for negligent driving rather than the road’s condition being fairly assessed and fixed,” Mr Ovington said.
“The only problem with that is there isn’t a proper statistical record of all the accidents.”
The NRMA report said that in the six years between 2008 and 2013, 1480 people were killed and 100,413 injured on roads managed by NSW regional councils, costing those communities almost $15 billion.
“Upgrading dangerous roads makes a huge difference to the road toll,” Ms Lundy said.
“Recent upgrades to the Princes Highway north of Jervis Bay have resulted in a 90 per cent reduction in injury crashes.”
According to the NRMA report, the Bega Valley Shire Council (BVSC) has $39 million worth of identified repair work still outstanding for our region.
The BVSC was approached for comment, and asked for reasons for the local backlog, future strategies, and target roads.
“Council is not in a position to comment on the substance of the report nor the definitions adopted,” Wayne Sartori, BVSC Group Manager of Transport and Utilities, responded.
“BVSC has undertaken and developed its Transport Asset Management Plan 2011 and reviewed it in 2015.
"The plan indicates that council’s extensive road network is at an acceptable standard as set by the council and based on adopted levels of service.”
One of the best people to affirm or refute that claim is Ken Connell.
As manager of Eden Buses, Mr Connell has been driving school buses for over 14 years, servicing Nethercote, Towamba, Burragate, Rocky Hall and Wyndam.
He’s navigated more bumps, corrugations and washouts than probably any other driver in the shire, but was gentle on council.
“I understand their position,” Mr Connell said.
“There are over 700 kilometres of dirt road in the shire, and they can’t keep everyone happy.
"I think the council is keeping up with a maintenance program, but the NRMA’s focus is probably road renewal, and the money simply isn’t there.”
The NRMA’s report suggests a seven-point action plan to help fix unfixed council roads, including using a greater proportion of the fuel excise revenue for road repair, building local engineering capacity, and fostering networking alliances with the private sector to share expertise and financial pressures in regional road projects.
Mr Connell agrees that a bit of lateral thinking is required.
“The council needs to have a serious review of the cost benefit, and favourable outcomes, of contracting independent services for road infrastructure rather than relying on the council’s permanent in-house workforce,” Mr Connell said.
In the meantime, affected drivers are trying their best to stay safe.
“There are spots on the Towamba-Eden Road where two cars can’t pass, like a truck or the school bus,” Mr Ovington said.
“So we just have to stop and reverse, or try to pull over.”
Mr Connell, driving his precious busload of schoolkids, is an expert at those kinds of manoeuvres.
And with no end in sight to the bumpy road ahead, that practice is critical.