Potholes to cost NSW councils $1.9 billion to repair, survey finds

The state of potholes on NSW roads is now so severe that councils need a billion-dollar cash injection to fix them. Find out the cost of the repairs.

Potholes on NSW roads are now so bad that the state’s councils need a cash injection of $1.9 billion to fix them.

And a new report from the NRMA predicts that the backlog in funding will balloon when the next assessment of broken roads takes in damage from the recent flooding.

The NRMA’s Fix Our Broken Roads report took data from the state’s 128 councils to identify the $1.9 backlog in funding in the last financial year.

But that figure is expected to be dwarfed when the next assessment takes in damage from floodwaters.

Early reporting on damage for the first half of this financial year from just 60 per cent of the state’s 98 regional councils estimated their backlog of funding for pothole repair at $1.1 billion.

Potholes in NSW roads would now cost

upwards of $1.9 billion to fix them all.

“We know from the $1.9 billion existing funding deficit revealed by the NRMA today that things are already bad and will only get worse as the true devastation from the floods is quantified. As a community we need to work together to get councils the funding they need to get the job done,” NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said.

The NRMA has now called on people to report busted roads.

Ian Halliday, with the potholes outside his Blaxland house. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“The NRMA has an almighty job on its hands over the next year fighting to get the funding councils need to fix our flood ravaged, potholed littered road network – that’s why we want the community to tell us where the worst roads are through our Rate Your Road survey,” Mr Khoury said.

“It is easy to pinpoint the worst and best performing roads and tell us why. Having your say can make a huge difference – the 2019 survey received a record number of votes and that data helped the NRMA secure record road funding from the NSW and Australian Governments.”

Nokia engineer Ian Halliday has written repeatedly to Blue Mountains City Council about the potholes in his street in Blaxland.

“There are a few of them at the front of the house that are quite deep that have been here for a while.

“I have complained to the council repeatedly. These are terrible, especially for the kids riding down the road on bikes. It is shocking.”

To take part in the NRMA survey go to: www.rateyourroad.com.au.