Wingecarribee Shire roads funding win the budget with millions of dollars of funding

Long-suffering motorists will be buoyed by planned major works to repair roads across the Wollondilly Shire hammered by fires and floods.

Wingecarribee Shire will pump $13.9 million into the region’s pothole-riddled roads over the next financial year.

The council’s extraordinary meeting on Wednesday acknowledged the concerns of the community in providing millions of dollars to fix the dire state of the roads in the shire. The council’s budget has revealed the council has allocated $13.9 million for roads in the 2021/22 financial year, which will be propped up by special rate variations.

Government funding for two significant road projects was announced in the meeting, with Wombeyan Caves Rd finally getting attention. The pothole-riddled road will receive $8 million from the NSW Government as part of the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Package.

Wingecarribee Shire Council Chambers in Moss Vale, NSW. Picture: Wingecarribee Shire Council

The funding will focus on fixing the road between the Southern Highlands and the crossing of the Wollondilly River, with some sections of the road earmarked to be sealed.

The road has been in bad shape since the 2019/20 bushfires, and was brought into further disrepair by the subsequent floods. Council staff warn the millions of dollars of funding will not be enough to bring the whole road up to standard.

“It is estimated that it would take in excess of $450 million to transform Wombeyan Caves Road in its entirety to a standard comparable with the sealed section of the road,” the council report states.

The council was also successful in securing more than $2.1 million in funding from the Federal Government’s local roads grant.

The grant, which has a focus on the speedy completion of projects, will be used to create a road deviation at Colo Road Mittagong.

The council will create a four-way intersection at the junction of Colo Rd and Range Rd with Railway Parade to replace the Range Rd train overpass. The project has been allocated $750,000 of the funding, with the remaining $1.38 million going towards resealing the roads throughout the Wingecarribee Shire. The funding will bring the total budget for road resealing to $3.9 million.

The repair of Wombeyan Caves Rd will be facilitated by millions of dollars in bushfire recovery funds. Picture: Wingecarribee Shire Council

The council discussed the use of the Station St grant as a source of revenue for other pressing projects around the Shire, now the project has been officially scrapped. Mr May said the remaining balance of the initial $7.5 million grant for the Station St project is $4.1 million after council has successfully claimed the costs already expended.

The interim administrator recommended the redistribution of funds from the grant to pressing public projects as outlined below.

Mr May said the community should not suffer because of the failings of the previous council.

“(T)he Wingecarribee community should not be robbed of the balance of this grant through the ineptitude of financial decisions previously taken by council,” he said.

Mr May also signalled his intention to explore the council’s options in forming a strategic relationship with the Greater Sydney area in order to secure funding and influence the impact of future growth.