Liam McNally
A roads blitz is under way in Moorabool, with council allocating an extra $600,000 towards road maintenance.
Council voted to add the money to its road maintenance budget during its meeting on Wednesday, November 2.
The decision was made to increase the budget as constant rain and storms have resulted in deterioration of the road network.
Council inspected the entire road network and detected approximately 460 defects due to flood damage. Follow up inspections are currently taking place as a result of the high rainfall-storm event on November 8.
Council will be able to claim some road repairs under the state government’s Disaster Recovery Fund and the recently announced Council Flood Support Fund.
Council has completed works on Spencer Road, Ballan, and has upcoming works including finalising the rectification works on Mill Park, Ballan car park area, and preparing documentation to start rectification works in Elaine, Grenville, Scotsburn, Yendon and Lal Lal.
Rectification works include formation grading, removal of debris and silt from infrastructure, loss of material and requiring replacement, potholes and sealed pavement damage, unsealed shoulder surface failure and unsealed road surface damage.
Council has engaged three civil contractors to rectify these defects across the shire.
Mayor Tom Sullivan said: “There is a lot of work to be done on our roads, we understand that.
“Recent storms and rain have created many problems. We’re being very proactive in making plans to have the roads fixed up as quickly and effectively as possible.
“This extra $600,000 on top of what we have already set aside to maintain and fix our council-owned roads in the Budget, will result in obvious improvements to roads across our entire shire.”
