Blocked causeway a safety risk

RESIDENTS living along the Glens Creek Rd say they are getting a raw deal from Clarence Valley Council with conditions along their road declining dangerously.

Glens Creek Rd resident Andrew Porelli in the flooded causeway which regularly blocks the road. . Picture: JOJO NEWBY

RESIDENTS living along the Glens Creek Rd near Nymboida say they are getting a raw deal from Clarence Valley Council with conditions along their road declining dangerously.

Glens Creek Rd resident Andrew Porrelli said for years he had been alerting council to a number of issues along the road, including potholes, flood-prone causeways and the lack of flood warning signs and depth gauges, which he said were making regular trips into town dangerous.

He is particularly concerned about the situation given the bendy, mostly unsealed road is also the school bus route.

Mr Porrelli said these conditions were creating a recipe for disaster for local road users and, most importantly, the school bus.

"Our kids are running the gauntlet every time they catch that school bus," he said.

"We're so far behind the times up here, and as much as I understand the reasons, you just can't have this when safety is involved."

He said something also needed to be done about one particular causeway on the road which went under water whenever the area saw about 20mm of rain in a day, cutting off access to properties further on.

And the small school bus - which made four trips per school day up and down the road - was often unable to get the school kids home if they lived beyond the causeway.

Mr Porrelli said one incident in the past saw residents having to use a rope strung between a four-wheel drive on the far side of the causeway and the bus to get the school children across the water to their families.

It wasn't just the school bus which gets cut off in rain, Mr Porelli said everyone on the wrong side of the causeway had to travel to town via the old Glen Innes Rd and the Gwydir Hwy - a trip which adds significant distance to the journey and a trip which could have claimed the lives of his wife and son last week.

Mr Porrelli said his wife had been driving their son to Nymboida on Australia Day (via the Gwydir Hwy and Old Glen Innes Rd) when, on their return trip down the Armidale Rd, a tyre blew and their car spun out before hitting a tree head on.

The impact left Mr Porrelli's son with bumps and bruises and his wife in a Brisbane Hospital with spinal injuries - he said if the causeway hadn't been blocked after the recent rain the pair would never had been driving in that area in the first place.

As full ratepayer, Mr Porrelli said he had been disappointed by a lack of action by the council on the road and said basic work and regular maintenance could vastly improve the situation.

"It needs a bit of engineering, a bit of changing, some mitigation, it needs a few causeways fixed and upgraded probably and job done - so it's not like they have to put a Pacific Hwy-style road through here, just give us the basic road conditions we need," he said.

Clarence Valley Council deputy general manager Rob Donges said the council was aware of the issues on the road.

He said before Christmas council identified "considerable reconstruction work" that needed to be done on the road and causeways and said work would hopefully get under way soon.

Mr Donges also agreed a long-term solution to the road getting cut at the causeway was needed and said the council would be investigating options to stop it happening in the future.

Originally published as Blocked causeway a safety risk