Gympie Regional Council To Focus On Roads

Road maintenance will be a priority focus for the 2020 – 2021 financial year, with Gympie Regional Council looking to rectify issues across the road network.

Australian Industry standard groups recommend resealing bitumen roads every 10-15 years to minimise the cost of maintaining the road, however Gympie Region roads are currently averaging resealing every 27 years.

“The purpose for reseals is to prolong the life of the costly pavement beneath them,” explained Sam Murphy, Asset Manager Gympie Regional Council.

“Currently we have 302km of roads which have not been resealed for over 15 years, if we were to bring these down to the 15 year mark as recommended, the cost to Council would be approx. $9.4 million.”

“Unfortunately the impact of leaving reseals as long as we have, it can increase the cost of rectification work by up to 30 times of what the cost is to reseal,” said Mr Murphy.

Council is now looking to increase its reseal expenditure as part of the 2020 – 2021 Financial Year budget. This is aimed at increasing the reseal program across the region and back in line with the 15 year recommendation.

“I’m really disappointed that we have let our maintenance fall behind as much as we have, especially when you look at the cost to bring our road network back, not to a high standard but to a general standard,” said Gympie region Mayor, Glen Hartwig.

“We already have a major strain on our finances including a current deficit. This (road resealing) is only going to place a further strain on our already limited budget.”

Council is continuing to work on the 2020 – 2021 Financial Budget, due to be delivered to the region at the end of July.