Erina Heights: Central Coast Highway bumps resurface and why it will never be fixed

Just over 12 months after the most recent repairs, bone-jarring bumps have resurfaced on the Central Coast Highway at Erina Heights. Here’s why it will never be fixed properly.

It cost $80 million to build and is less than eight years old but a 2.2km section of the Central Coast Highway at Erina Heights is again in urgent need of repair.

As the State Government is preparing plans for a $378 million upgrade to the highway from Forresters Beach to Bateau Bay, several kilometres to the south motorists have been left with a “gnarly” stretch of road with undulations and ripples emerging in sections that have been grinded off and resurfaced several times over.

“It’s pretty gnarly, it’s like hitting a speed hump at 60km/h,” New Heights Cafe owner Shane Awad said.

“There’s no point in having a nice car, you’re only going to damage your rims.”

His business, across the highway from the Ritchie’s IGA supermarket at Erina Heights, is in the middle of about 15 undulations, ripples and bumps that have emerged between Carlton and Matcham roads, which are again causing havoc for the estimated 25,000 vehicles a day that use it.

The section was the first of two upgrades of the highway to two lanes in each direction between Erina and Forresters Beach, which officially opened in 2013.

Construction began in August 2009 but work ground to a halt in May 2012 when the contractor Reed Construction Australia went into liquidation and Gosford City Council took over.

A Transport for NSW spokesman said “a recycled aggregate with a crushed rock appearance” was used in the construction of the road, “which has since been identified as causing bumps on the road surface”.

Transport for NSW said the recycled aggregate used during construction has caused the bumps.

The aggregate was a by-product of a steelmaking process and the spokesman said Transport for NSW stopped using the product about eight years ago.

But not before it was also used during upgrades to Avoca Drive and Tuggerah Straight, which have also had similar problems with bumps.

“Work to improve the road surface on the Central Coast Highway at Erina Heights has been carried out by Central Coast Council on behalf of Transport for NSW,” the spokesman said.

“The most recent work was carried out in September 2020 and discussions are ongoing with council about timing for the next stage of work, which involves milling off the bumps and resurfacing the road.”

When the Express Advocate first reported on the problem in 2015 a spokesman for the then Roads and Maritime Service said the aggregate was abandoned in 2013 and was not used in the West Gosford interchange, Sparks Rd and Warnervale town centre intersection upgrade or Terrigal Drive intersection upgrade at Charles Kay Drive and Brunswick Rd.

A section near the Richies IGA has been repaired a number of times but bumps are staring to form again. The concrete median shows how high previous bumps have formed. Picture: Richard Noone

Another local business owner at Erina Heights, who did not wish to be identified, said he had been there for 22 years.

“We’ve seen it transform from a country road to a highway,” he said.

“They used the wrong substrate. I spoke to one of the engineers and he said they would have to take (the road surface) down 50cm to a metre and re-tar it, which they’ll never do.”

Former Gosford Councillor Craig Doyle, who was known as the “road warrior” for his commitment to improve the region’s road network, said the use of recycled aggregate was not the only issue.

Craig Doyle first raised the issue of the undulating bumps back in 2015, two years after the highway was finished.

“That argument doesn’t wash with me that much when you see the concrete in the median (strips) lifting and buckling,” he said.

Mr Doyle said the median strips were done separately and shouldn’t be affected by the aggregate under the road.

“The root cause is the road has not been completed to standard,” he said.

“Show me any other highway anywhere else where this is happening?”

Mr Doyle said grinding the top off and resurfacing was like “death by a thousand cuts”.

“You see the crews out three to four times a year, how much is that costing?” he said.

“They’re not pulling it out, they’re just grinding the top off. It’s like saying why do the operation when a bandaid will do. The first signs of this falling apart was after three months. I don’t know why we put up with it.”

Wyong State Labor MP and opposition spokesman for the Central Coast David Harris lodged a question to parliament about how much the ongoing works to fix the road cost but got no real answer “other than the state constantly assess road conditions and allocates maintenance fund accordingly”.