Gympie council unveils eight priority roads for flood fixing

Gympie council has taken a list of 80 possible flood damage projects and narrowed it down to eight priority jobs as it chases millions of dollars in State Government help.

Gympie council has identified eight priorty roads across the region to have their resilience improved in the wake of the trio of 2022 floods.

Eight of the Gympie region’s arterial roads demolished by this year’s flood events are at the top of the council’s “to do” list as it chases millions in State Government funding.

The council has flagged eight “priority” stretches of road it wants to improve in an effort to build them up and stop them from being cut during future floods.

These include two sections of Moy Pocket Rd, two sections of Cedar Pocket Rd, as well as parts of Rossmore Rd, Wilsons Pocket Rd near McLeish Bridge, the Greens Creek Bridge and Maudsley Rd.

The entire cost of this work would be more than $1.5m.

Councillors were told the council itself would have to cover about 10 per cent of the cost.

The State Government has offered $150m funding for work to help recovery efforts after the January and February 2022 disasters.

Gympie Regional Council has identified eight priority roads across the region to have their resilience improved in the wake of the trio of 2022 floods.

An extra $20m is on offer to help with roads ruined during the May flood.

This is to be shared across all Queensland councils affected by the disasters.

The eight roads proposed as priorities were selected from a list of 80 options identified since flood recovery works started, with a total estimated cost of $3.69m.

Councillor Dan Stewart asked why some roads on the list rebuilt no more than two years ago, had not had resiliency built into them in the first case.

“Greens Creek Bridge was only built two years ago; why wasn’t it then that it was done better?” Mr Stewart said.

Councillor Dan Stewart asked why some of the roads on the list, which had only been upgraded two years ago, had not been made more resilient when that work was done. Photo Renee Albrecht/Gympie Times

Mayor Glen Hartwig said the rainfall in February 2022 was “something we hadn’t seen before”.

“They were probably built to the specification and built on the historical water flows, and we just had a hell of a lot of water at the time,” Mr Hartwig said.

“We’ve got to take what we can get,” Bob Fredman said.

“We’ve got more than they can possibly fund, so let’s get into it and get the best case as quickly as we can.”

The council’s part of the bill is expected to be about $300,000.

Shane Waldock said there might be more value in increasing the amount the council was willing to pay if it opened the door to more roads and infrastructure being made flood proof.

“Three hundred thousands dollars for the biggest natural disaster we’ve ever had is chicken feed,” Shane Waldock said.