Hardest hit remains priority for urgent works
Published on 06 June 2022
As NSW records its wettest Autumn since 1990, Shoalhaven City Council continues with urgent works following the east coast low and subsequent flooding that hit the region in March.
More than $2 million has already been spent fixing roads, bridges and causeways, as well as clearing the major land slips that engulfed roads around Kangaroo Valley.
Paul Keech, Director City Services, said Shoalhaven’s northern road network has been the priority, receiving the lion’s share of the work so far.
“With some residents and businesses unable to access their homes due to road slips, emergency reconstruction works have been our focus since day one,” said Paul.
“A great deal of energy and determination has gone into solving road access issues for the community. While some roads are operating with one lane, necessary geotechnical investigations and design works are progressing so we can return safe and robust roads to the community.
“We are steadily working our way through necessary road works, but the hardest hit will always be our priority.”
Paul said Council used a prioritisation tool to help rationally rank the order of works. The prioritisation is determined via a heat map scoring process where severity and impact produce a score between 1 (low impact) and 5 (severe) for each risk.
So far 57 sites have scored a 5 or above and are considered the highest priority for action. In most cases this means temporary works will be done immediately until permanent works can be planned.
“Major works need a strategy and time commitment to be done well,” said Paul. “When you see us performing temporary fixes, that’s to keep the community safe while we plan a bigger program of works.
“Of course, the weather plays a major role in our ability to deliver major road repairs, and record-breaking rainfall has unfortunately hindered our progress.”
Paul hoped a break in the weather would see progress made on the following works over the next three weeks:
- Wattamolla Road, Wattamolla: works include an interim solution to provide a 10 tonne load limited one lane access.
- Woodhill Mountain Road, Woodhill: night works currently being done to repair major damage (see photos below)
- The Wool Road, Basin View: road repairs
- Albion Street, Sanctuary Point: road repairs
- Cammeray Drive, St Georges Basin: road repairs
“Rest assured, we also continue to address pothole concerns as part of our maintenance schedule, with more than 35,000 potholes filled since March.” said Paul.
Paul reminded the community that some major roads in the Shoalhaven are managed by Transport for NSW (TfNSW). TfNSW is carrying out recovery work on Moss Vale Road at Cambewarra Mountain and Barrengarry Mountain. Visit the TfNSW website for news on repairs. You can also subscribe to Kangaroo Valley updates by going to Shoalhaven City Council’s dedicated project pages.
Photos from Friday 3 June 2022 at Woodhill Mountain Road. Crews doing heavy patching to repair the heavily damaged and corrugated road. Night works to reduce disruption to residents. High resolution available.
