Blue Mountains News

Council has enacted an escalated road repair program, sought additional funding and engaged a growing number of external contractors to work alongside Council staff to increase our capacity to complete repairs. There are two main kinds of repairs taking place: jetpatching and heavy patching.

Jetpatching is a quick process that temporarily repairs potholes and road damage. This work is essential to keep local roads moving while we wait for roads to fully dry to allow permanent repair work to take place.

Heavy patching is a more complicated process that permanently repairs the road. Heavy patching uses larger equipment and requires that the road and road base be fully dry. The road can take weeks to completely dry, depending on the amount and frequency of rain.

The forecast for the beginning of October is for significant rain, and a third La Niña event is due to set in across Eastern Australia for Spring and Summer, which will have a major impact on Council’s ability to complete road repairs.

Blue Mountains Mayor Cr Mark Greenhill expressed his frustration with the ongoing poor weather conditions, and sympathy with both the community and Council staff.

“Unfortunately rain and roads are the infuriating situation that keeps on giving, and I know we are all absolutely exhausted by it,” Cr Greenhill said.

“It’s a bad situation and as much as I and Council staff would love to tell the community there’s a quick fix, there isn’t. While that’s frustrating and disheartening to hear, I believe it’s important that we are up front about the task ahead of us.

“In the last three years we’ve had four separate rain and flood events. That, on top of two La Niña Summers, bushfire recovery and the ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic, have created the perfect storm for our community, and our infrastructure.

“On top of record rains, material shortages and sky-rocketing costs, our roads have taken a literal beating that has left one third of the local road network damaged. The estimated cost of that damage, including repair of roads and the 66 landslides, exceeds $400million.

“At the same time as this unprecedented and catastrophic road damage, we also have ceaseless rain, and skilled labour, material and machinery shortages, which hinders our ability to repair that damage.

“Every time it rains, it sets us back. And we are once again facing a very wet Summer.

“That’s not to say we haven’t made progress. In the last four weeks we’ve fixed over 7,000sqm square metres of local roads, which is the same as the total amount we did in the whole 2019-2020 financial year.

“Our city and our roads are drenched. There are also 66 landslips across the Blue Mountains that Council is also working to repair. Many of those landslips required significant geotechnical assessments to be completed, and all need major works to repair them and make them safe for the community.

“You’ve heard me talk before about the fatigue we’re all feeling after three years of unrelenting crises. We have lived through more emergencies and crises in the last three years than the rest of my Mayorship combined.

“Council staff are providing weekly updates on what road repair works have been completed as well as what work is scheduled, and the new solutions they’re finding to continue to make progress against the odds. One of our key strategies is to engage as many external contractors as possible to assist with our recovery.

“To put the challenge into perspective,” Cr Greenhill continued, “Council staff are in the process of implementing 10 years’ worth of road works in 12 months, that’s the scale of it.

“It’s also important we remember that we are not the only ones facing this problem. Councils’ right across Eastern Australia are experiencing similar issues, with huge numbers of potholes, landslips and other road repairs that need to be completed. We are all suffering from a lack of materials and bracing for La Niña and the next drenching that is on the horizon,” Cr Greenhill concluded.

Council is responsible for the maintenance and repair of local roads. Some roads that need attention are managed by Transport for NSW, and Council is working with them to ensure repairs are made to those roads quickly and with as little impact to local residents as possible.

You can stay up to date with the road repair program, and report a pothole or road issue for local roads at: here

State roads in the Blue Mountains are the Great Western Highway, Hawkesbury Road and the Darling Causeway. You can report issues on State roads at: here