Council repaired 11,000 potholes in one month alone this year and a spokesperson said road gangs were finally getting on top of the backlog, providing the wet weather holds off.
The combination of an extended higher than average rainfall this year, resulted in thousands of potholes appearing. Council Road Maintenance staff path potholes temporarily before later returning to make a permanent repair in dry weather.
The patching is a temporary solution to reduce safety hazards and to treat isolated defects in the road network and is the only solution available to Council in wet weather
Council administrator Rik Hart said an additional $2.5M was being spent on repairs, which brought the ‘spend’ on road maintenance and repairs to $30M.
“Both State and Federal Governments have pledged funding to the region and Council looks forward to securing this funding to help renew roads in our region in the longer term.”
The NRMA is at the forefront of callouts for motorists who damage vehicles in potholes. It reports more than one in 10 callouts in the past six months have related to tire failures because of potholes.
Since July last year, it responded to 56,000 calls for tyre and wheel damage problems, many of them on the Coast. There were 28,440 calls in July-August alone. This is a 45% increase on the same period last year
“Sustained periods of heavy rain has seen significant damage to roads with a growing number of potholes and shoulder-with damage,” an NRMA report said.
“Fixing damaged roads during the pandemic and while rain continue has added further pressure to councils.”
The Coast had 2580 callouts for wheel assistance, the second highest number in the state behind Blacktown with just one call more at 2581. In July-August alone it had 1504 callouts, the highest in the State.
The NRMA’s Peter Khoury said: “We are seeing a significant increase for people who have damaged their tyres or wheels”.
He said the growing number of potholes during sustained wet weather was a “massive concern” for the organisation.
“Drivers are being confronted with some really challenging conditions,” he said. “We should be driving to the conditions and if there is water on the road, you need to be prepared to drive into potholes that can’t see.”
Mr Khoury said although councils were responsible for the bulk of the road network, getting a payout for any damage was a “grey area”.
“We don’t want to see a situation where people are suing councils. It’s time-consuming and its costly.
“The preference is councils get out there and fix roads as fast as they can. But the way the weather has bee, it’s a great challenge councils are facing.”
Few claims by motorists for compensation are successful. Solicitor Paul Ell said: “It’s difficult, there aren’t many cases of successful claims made against Councils.
“The Civil Liability Act gives pretty broad protection Councils and other road authorities like Transport for NSW.”
Mr Ell said a claimant would have to satisfy two provisions to be compensated for damage.
“It comes down to awareness – whether the authority was specifically aware of that particular pothole and had it been reported formally.”
“Secondly, whether they’ve acted negligently in not dealing with that issue in terms of the resources they have available. That is usually the ‘get out’ for council.”
Sources: Central Coast Council, NRMA, ABC News
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