Tweed Shire Councils reopens Scenic Dr at cost of $2.7m after road badly damaged in 2022 floods
A major Tweed road damaged in the 2022 floods has reopened to traffic a month ahead of schedule. Here’s how the road was brought up to scratch.
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The second landslip on a busy Tweed road has finally been fixed at a cost of $2.7 million after inconveniencing motorists for almost a year.
Two Scenic Dr landslips severed access to the main road connecting Bilambil Heights and Tweed Heads following the 2022 floods.
A single lane was restored in September last year, allowing temporary access.
Tweed Shire Council has now announced that a favourable run of weather, combined with the use of specialised materials to speed up construction, has resulted in the restoration of Scenic Dr being completed ahead of schedule.
Tweed Mayor Chris Cherry said the reopening was a significant milestone as the anniversary of the flood approaches later this month.
“This is the first of our major landslip repairs to be completed, and it will be welcome news to the thousands of residents who commute along Scenic Dr each day,” she said.
“We are also making significant progress on our other major landslips in the Tweed, with a $6 million tender approved for Reserve Creek Road and negotiations well underway with contractors on the repair of Tyalgum Road.”
The council's flood restoration project manager Russell Brown said the project was fortunate the weather allowed work to proceed with minimal disruption.
“(Contractors) Australian Marine and Civil Pty Ltd (AMC) are very experienced in this type of work, and by using new types of backfill and construction blocks, they were able to speed up construction, he said.
“While Site B was the larger of the two slips, it didn’t pose the technical challenges of Site A. Concrete piles had to be constructed at Site A – the deeper of the two slips – with the contractors boring down as far as five metres to anchor onto bedrock at the base of the slip.
“More than 900 tonnes of rock were supplied and placed on the boulder retaining walls on the sites.”
Many more roads across the North Coast and the Tweed remain in desperate need of repair following the floods.
Councils throughout NSW recently joined Local Government NSW and the Country Mayors Association in declaring a Statewide Road Emergency.
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