About $30m is needed to fix rain damaged roads on the northern beaches, council told
Repeated bouts of wet weather means tens of millions of dollars worth of repairs are needed for northern beaches roads, as the state government is lobbied for more cash.
Manly
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A staggering $25 to $30 million is needed to repair potholes and road surfaces on the northern beaches, it has been revealed.
More than 1100 individual local roads have been damaged by recent bouts of bad weather, Tuesday night’s meeting of Northern Beaches Council will be told.
The news comes as the council continues to lobby the NSW Government to take “further action” to repair the main routes it manages on the northern beaches including busy Pittwater and Barrenjoey roads.
In a report to the council, its staff highlighted that between July 2022 and January 2023, council crews repaired 3,346 potholes on local roads.
“$25-30 million is the estimated cost to fully resurface roads whose surfaces have deteriorated due to rain” the report stated.
The council has already spent $1.9m on pothole repairs and road patching since July 1 last year and is expected to fork out another $3m for more “heavy patching” until June 30.
It’s proposed that the council spend $7m next financial year, but $6m of that would come from a recent $9m State Government grant.
The council has been allocated $9.12 million as part of the state government’s $500 million Regional and Local Road Repair Program.
About $5.5m has also been spent by the council to resurface roads — and on resurfacing work still in progress — this financial year to January 2023.
The council said the money from the state government would assist in the repair of a “vast number of unbudgeted repairs”.
Council CEO Ray Brownlee said it managed a 844km network of local roads.
“The flood events we had last March and July and the continued rain over the past year has done untold damage to our roads,” Mr Brownlee said.
The report to the council stated that it had written to NSW Metropolitan Roads Minister Natalie Ward to welcome its road repair grant and to request “further action on the State
Road network in the Northern Beaches Local Government area”.
Mayor Michael Regan said on Monday that while he was grateful for the government cash, he called on it to “take a more proactive stance” with its roads.
“The contracts need to be redone to reflect the fact that it simply cannot cope with current weather extremes,” he said.
“We saw main roads most affected, but waited in some case months, for example Wakehurst Parkway, for roads to be resurfaced.
“That meant more cars damaged and an unsafe drive for months on end as you tried to dodge months’ old potholes.”
The government has recently asphalted a notoriously potholed 2.8 km section of Wakehurst Parkway, between Judith St, Seaforth and Aquatic Dr, Frenchs Forest.
Transport for NSW has been contacted for comment.
NSW Government roads on the northern beaches are:
Beach Road
Ocean Road
Barrenjoey Road
Pittwater Road
Warringah Road
Condamine Street (Brookvale to Burnt Bridge Creek Deviation)
Burnt Bridge Creek Deviation and Myrtle Street overpass
Forest Way
Wakehurst Parkway
Mona Vale Road
McCarrs Creek Road (From Terrey Hills to McCarrs Creek Reserve)
Liberator General San Martin Drive
Sydney Road
Belgrave Street
Manly Road
Frenchs Forest Road (in Seaforth)
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