Orangeville resident calls on Wollondilly Shire Council to fix Silverdale Rd

A resident has spoken out about her frustrations driving on a ‘horrendous’ road and is ramping up calls to upgrade it before there’s a fatality.

A resident has called for urgent upgrades to Silverdale Rd, labelling its condition as “horrendous”, but the council says the road should be managed by the State Government.

Orangeville resident Janel Sefton is frustrated with the state of the road, saying it is a “death trap” waiting to happen for drivers, especially those unfamiliar with the region.

She has lived locally for seven years and said the state of the road had always been “shocking”.

“The repairs on my vehicles have been horrendous and it’s all shocks and struts, suspensions and one broken axle all by travelling up and down Silverdale Rd,” Ms Sefton said.

“The road quality is terrible and when they do a fix job it’s not good enough.

Orangeville resident Janel Sefton is raising her concerns about the state of Silverdale Rd. Picture: Annie Lewis

“One week, when they were doing a fix near Hayter’s Sawmill, I counted that I sat for four hours all up at the lollipop people waiting to get past and it still wasn’t a good enough job.”

Ms Sefton has seen multiple accidents on the road and while the cause of those crashes are still under investigation, she said it was a dangerous stretch.

She has complained to Wollondilly Council previously, but fed up with the lack of action and also contacted Hume MP Angus Taylor.

Ms Sefton said the flooding and intense rainfall of the past two weeks had made the road even more dangerous.

“Fix the roads please, you have been promising it for so long,” she said.

“I saw a family member hit a pothole and go headfirst through the screen of an oncoming vehicle when I was younger, it’s why I am so passionate about this issue.

“Please just fix it.”

Resident Janel Sefton says she has seen multiple crashes on Silverdale Rd. Picture: Supplied

The cost of road trauma per person in Wollondilly is the highest in a combined area including southern Sydney, Illawarra and the south coast at $8171 per person over five years as highlighted in the NRMA Rate Your Road report.

Some of the roads in the region which received poor condition scores by respondents in the Wollondilly council area were Burragorang, Woodbridge, Finns, Silverdale and Avon Dam roads.

NRMA spokeswoman Katrina Usman said the rain over the past several months had undoubtedly made road conditions worse with new potholes and cracks opening.

“In 2019 the NRMA revealed there was a $2.2 billion backlog in funding required by councils to maintain local roads across NSW to a satisfactory standard,” she said.

“New upcoming figures by the NRMA will indicate the backlog across the state has since improved.

“However the short term focus now needs to be on restoration and maintenance following recent rain events.’’

Resident Janel Sefton says she has seen multiple crashes on Silverdale Rd. Picture: Supplied

“While the human cost of road trauma can forever impact individuals, families and communities; calculating the economic cost of crashes is one way to help identify and prioritise the need for more funding to improve road conditions and road safety, and to ensure resources are appropriately allocated.”

Ms Usman said with the federal and state budgets coming up, the NRMA was hoping to see significant funding allocated to improve local roads and ultimately reduce road trauma.

Wollondilly Shire Council received multiple grants including from the NSW Road Safety Program – Safer Local Government Roads, to implement road safety upgrades along Silverdale Rd between The Oaks and Silverdale.

This grant will provide $5 million to enable the council to upgrade the road and works are also under way funded under the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program with some additional renewal funds from council to complete the section between Bents Basin Rd and the Bridge.

The Federal Government Western Sydney Infrastructure Program which will see $6 million of upgrades through Silverdale township between Warradale Rd. and the shopping centre.

Mayor Matt Gould said the council and the Federal and NSW Governments had and would continues to invest millions into upgrades to Silverdale Rd.

“This is one of our busiest road in the Shire and it needs to be looked after,” he said.

“Like many of our roads it has been badly damaged in places through the recent storms and council crews are working to get it fixed as quickly as possible.

“The reality though is this should be a state road managed by the NSW Government directly with its significantly larger roads budget.”

Mr Gould said Wollondilly MP Nathaniel Smith MP agreed and was advocating hard for that to happen.

“Until this happens, council will pull out all stops to make the road safe and advocate hard for more funding for staged upgrades for Silverdale road to ensure we are able to make sure it is a safe, high quality road,” he said.