At the last Hawkesbury Council meeting, a report into the state of Hawkesbury’s roads was presented.
The report provides a Hawkesbury-wide overview of the state of the roads, the internal and external issues contributing to the roads including systemic and structural issues within Council, a pathway towards overcoming these problems, and most importantly a commitment to resolving these issues to ensure delivery of a modern-standard road network.
Council allocates 40 per cent of its budget every year to managing 1063km of roads – the largest capital expenditure in the budget by a wide margin.
However, the report concedes years of outdated and ineffective road maintenance and delivery practises has largely contributed to the state of the roads, including the failure to effectively collect and utilise real-life data over a long period of time, leading to the inefficient application of resources and funding, and poor practises. These issues have then been exacerbated by six flood events in three years.
Recovery of these roads is now being hampered not by a lack of money or resolve by the Council and staff, but by shortages in the availability of contractors and materials due to a high demand right across Sydney and NSW for flood recovery work.
Mayor McMahon said Council was heeding the lessons learned within the past three years and had already made significant inroads into not just repairing roads but also improving service delivery for the future.
Clr McMahon was quoted as saying “There is no short-term fix. This is a long-term plan. Our capital expenditure this financial year is $38 million – almost double compared to the last five years. In this last financial year, we have seen asset renewal productivity of 150% – double the ratio of the previous year”.
