Toowoomba council to start $6m in flood repair works across region, total bill worth $100m

More than 50 Toowoomba region roads damaged during three flood events since November will receive priority works by the council — but the repairs barely scratch the surface of the total bill.

Mackenzie Street on 25th February 2022. Pic David Martinelli

The council will start on $6m worth of priority works to repair flood damage across the Toowoomba region, but it’s a drop in the ocean of the devastation caused by three heavy rain events in just eight months.

Councillors endorsed a plan at Tuesday’s infrastructure committee meeting to start on $6.14m worth of priority reconstruction works on 52 roads.

The council estimates more than $100m in damage has been caused by major flood events in November 2021, February and May.

The initial works comes before the council had gotten approved for the funding from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, with principal project manager Stephen Petrie’s report highlighting the need to “achieve the program within required time frames, and to further address community expectations on reconstruction of damaged assets”.

“The identified priority works would be required to be performed regardless of the funding source to restore the condition of the local road network to an acceptable level, as such these

funds would not be wasted and would represent funding having been brought forward to restore road network conditions,” the report said.

Infrastructure chair Councillor Carol Taylor said the council needed to move quickly on priority works.

“The overall flood reconstruction works will take at least two years to complete due to the substantial damage we’ve experienced throughout the entire region,” she said.

“Our road network has been severely damaged and because of the repeated rain events, we haven’t had an opportunity to commence repairing the network as quickly as we did following previous flood events, such as 2011.

“In saying this, our crews have done an amazing job to date, having completed nearly 5500 temporary emergency repairs since November 2021 and are now moving into the next phase of undertaking priority permanent reconstruction work.”

Originally published as Toowoomba council to start $6m in flood repair works across region, total bill worth $100m