Hindley St and Currie St to undergo urgent repairs this week

TWO of the CBD’s major streets will undergo major repairs — with one of them having been sprayed with bitumen to cover dangerously slippery pavers less than a year ago — causing more traffic disruptions.

Bitumen in Hindley Street peeling away after it was the surfacing solution to the slippery pavers.

IT’S the Hindley St slip-up that continues to haunt Adelaide City Council.

Less than a year after the council sprayed bitumen to cover dangerously slippery pavers on the popular city street, the coating has broken apart exposing the brickwork forcing the council to again carry out emergency repairs.

“The rapid response team is aware of this particular section as they inspect the street regularly, and plans are underway to patch up the area in the short-term,” the council’s spokesman Matt Halliwell said.

“This will involve a resin being applied to the surface. It would be done at night to cause minimal disruption.”

The council was forced to cover the imported Chinese pavers last April after it emerged the original surface installed as part of a UniSA- led $4 million taxpayer funded upgrade of Hindley St was not skid resistant.

A long-term solution to the problem is yet to be determined.

Opposition Transport spokesman Corey Wingard said it was “concerning” that the bitumen was coming apart.

“These pavers in Hindley St and Victoria Square have been an ongoing issue,” he said. “Last year we saw pictures of a Metro bus sliding across wet, slippery pavers in Victoria Square’s 25km/h zone.

A heavily-damaged section of Currie St surface. Picture: Sam Wundke

“The bus driver, his passengers, pedestrians and other motorists were all at risk and it is alarming the slippery paver problem hasn’t been rectified.’’

It comes as the council will on Monday begin emergency repairs on Currie St to fix damage caused by buses thundering through the city carving large ruts on the road’s surface, lifting bitumen and creating tripping hazards.

The repairs, which will be undertaken between 8pm and 3am, are expected to take a week.

They were ordered by council after the Sunday Mail alerted it to the extent of the damage to one of Adelaide’s busiest roads, which is a major public transport route between the eastern and southern suburbs.

Adelaide Metro buses will not be re-routed during these works but there will be lane and speed restrictions.

Council Deputy Lord Mayor Houssam Abiad said some of the city’s streets and footpaths were “horrible” and had fallen into a state of disrepair because roadwork funding had been neglected.

“This means we have to budget $300 million worth of works over the next 10 years to return them to acceptable levels,” he said, adding the work to bring the CBD’s roads up to standard would take a decade to fix.

The council’s capital works budget is $36 million this financial year, which includes $7.9 million for road works, almost six times greater than the 2013-14 budget.

Mr Halliwell said the “shoving” of the asphalt into peaks and troughs on Currie St was caused by a combination of the multiple heavy loading of buses and the softening of the asphalt binder in hot weather.

He said the concentration of buses in the bus lanes and at bus stops further exacerbated the stresses on the ­asphalt.

Mr Halliwell said the council’s next step will be to work with the Transport Department to permanently fix the problem.

“With the O-Bahn City Access project drawing closer, there’s a good opportunity for the council to work closely with DPTI on longer term solutions,’’ he said.