A recent report to council has put the spotlight on local road funding.

Speaking to the Dubbo Photo News, Dubbo Regional Councillor Josh Black said the “excellent report from staff to council” highlighted the current state of play and outlined some “huge future challenges”.

“Basically, Dubbo Regional Council is struggling greatly to maintain the road network of Dubbo and Wellington and the backlog is growing every year,” Cr Black said.

“The wet weather and increasing use of some roads by heavy vehicles hasn’t helped, but essentially it is a money problem.”

Council has an ongoing schedule of repairs, including the regular grading of each road on the unsealed network.

There is also a gravel resheeting program, where road material is placed and compacted on the unsealed road to provide a pavement.

The current level of funding allows for approximately 35km of roads to be resheeted annually which, according to the report, is approximately 3.5 per cent of the unsealed road network.

Council also undertakes a heavy patching program aimed at removing defects within the pavement. These locations are determined based on the current condition of the roads.

Cr Black added the Wellington road network had “not been maintained effectively” prior to the amalgamation of the former Dubbo City and Wellington councils.

“There has been a more than doubling of road to maintain, but only a 10 per cent increase in population and rate-base,” he said.

“This forced council amalgamation was the big idea of the NSW State Government.

“They need to fix the mess that they have created by providing Dubbo Regional Council with a massive, immediate, and ongoing grant funding boost that will allow Wellington roads to be fixed, and allow funds to be returned to Dubbo’s road network.

“Effectively, Dubbo ratepayers are paying to fix Wellington’s aged infrastructure when the money should be coming from government grants, particularly from the NSW State Government.”

Cr Black said highlights of the report included:

* Dubbo Regional Council has 2511km of roads to maintain – the third highest distance of the 14 Central Western NSW Council areas.

* The cumulative 20-year backlog of road renewal works was anticipated to be $136 million.

* Unsealed rural roads are re-sheeted with gravel every 28.5 years on average.

* As a merged Council, the assets of the former Wellington Council have not been maintained effectively prior to the merger of Dubbo City and Wellington councils. This reflects a lack of available resources at that time.

The report said: “Dubbo Regional Council faces a number of challenges in terms of maintaining the road network, with over 1300 km of unsealed roads and roads within the sealed network diminishing due to the recent weather conditions.

“These roads are now routes for larger and heavier vehicles for which these roads were not necessarily deigned for; however, these issues are not necessarily unique to Dubbo.”

Late last week, acting Premier and Minister for Regional NSW, Paul Toole, said applications were now open for round four of the Fixing Local Roads program.

“Regional communities are already reaping the benefits of this program, with $547 million out the door for 498 projects in the first three rounds – 203 are already open to traffic and a further 295 in the planning and construction phases,” Mr Toole said.

Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, Sam Farraway, said the latest round of funding could be directed towards fixing potholes and general road maintenance on local roads.

“NSW has certainly had its fair share of natural disasters and extreme weather, and while we cannot control Mother Nature, we can control our response by improving the standard of our local road network,” he said.

Applications for funding are open until Friday, September 9.