Page 2647 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 21 September 2022
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over the last few weeks even more have occurred on the roads. The teams and crews are out there patching those up as soon as possible with cold mix. We encourage Canberrans to report those potholes on our roads through Fix My Street so that we are aware of them and can get onto them as soon as possible. Of course, we will be going through the annual road resurfacing program to do more of that heat patching from next month. We are also working with the Australian Road Research Board to inform a strategic approach to our road maintenance going forward. We are looking forward to using that research to provide further investment in this area.
MS LAWDER: Minister, why don’t Canberrans have roads to drive on that are safe and do not damage our cars, considering rates revenue has tripled over the last 10 years?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for her question. Of course, we are investing in our roads. In fact, in the last financial year we invested $10 million to cover an area of approximately 660,000 metres squared over 146 sites. We continue that in this financial year, with the road resurfacing program providing funding to keep our roads well maintained and safe. But we are in a period of very wet weather, and that does cause damage to roads, together with sunlight; it causes cracking which ends up causing potholes. We are out there responding to requests for repair as quickly as we can. We will then go through that longer term repair process and preventive resealing process to stop those occurring in the future.
We will use an evidence-based approach. We have been undertaking our road condition assessment, which will also inform the future program ahead. Canberrans can be assured that we continue to invest in this important area of city services.
MR DAVIS: Minister, will you consider redirecting some of the money allocated to road duplication projects to instead repair the roads we already have?
MR STEEL: I thank the member for his question. There is a variety of ways that we invest in roads. Of course, we do need to augment many of our roads to respond to our growing population, and the need to release more housing.
Ms Lawder: A point of order, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: Resume your seat, Mr Steel.
Ms Lawder: Is the question in order? The question was about road maintenance and potholes. It was not about road duplication.
MADAM SPEAKER: No, but it was about redirecting funds, so it is in order. You could have a view on the supp, but it is in order.
MR STEEL: As part of major roadworks, including road duplications and augmenting existing roads through a variety of different ways—the introduction of grade-separated road interchanges, those sorts of projects—we will look at how we can rehabilitate the existing road surface.
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