Page 2978 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 12 October 2022
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roads. What she does not realise is that, in effect, she has committed the Liberal Party to resurfacing fewer roads, resulting in worse conditions for our road network overall.
We will not take the Liberals’ approach of resurfacing less surface area of our roads. We will continue to take an evidence-based approach, utilising the appropriate treatments that each part of our road network requires. That is different in different circumstances, particularly at intersections, where certain treatments are required because of the deformation that can come with heavy braking, turning and those sorts of movements. We will respond with appropriate resourcing, and we will resurface a greater area by efficiently deploying our resourcing.
To address the challenges that our road network is facing—challenges which are being faced by the whole east coast of Australia at the moment—the ACT government is responding by deploying more resources, working with experts and providing additional funding. Unlike the Liberals, who have no plan or strategy about how they would maintain roads, other than resurfacing less area, we are getting on with the job of maintaining our roads. This month the government is temporarily repairing potholes, with a focus on the most dangerous damage, while noting the difficulties that are affecting repairs, because the asphalt does not settle during rain and colder periods of the year.
We have delivered additional surge funding of $4 million throughout the last two years towards road maintenance. In the last year Roads ACT repaired almost 8,000 potholes. This year, in August alone, over 1,100 potholes were patched. That compares to an average of 3,000 in a typical year. The government is providing all available resources to locate and repair potholes throughout the road network. We have extended contractor resources and redirected street-sweeping crews to assist in repairing road damage. We are putting in more resources because we know that this rain is likely to continue and that, inevitably, there will be more damage on our roads.
Last weekend all available internal resources, as well as extra contractor resources, were redirected to assist with the task of repairing potholes. Between Thursday, 6 October and Sunday, 9 October approximately 20 tonnes of cold mix was used to fill potholes. Under normal resourcing conditions, it would typically take two to three weeks to go through that quantity of cold mix.
As we move into warmer weather, more permanent patching and repair, resealing, and prevention and rehabilitation works will be undertaken as part of the annual road resurfacing program so that we can more permanently repair some of the issues that have arisen, as well as undertake that preventive work that is so crucial to making sure that we prevent issues from occurring in the first place. Roads ACT has recently extended the contract with the existing hot mix patching provider and it is in the process of engaging a second contractor to assist over the next couple of months. I note that this type of work is heavily reliant on having a break in the rain.
We are also deploying new state-of-the-art technology, where we can, to monitor and maintain our roads. A new road pavement condition testing contract commenced in early 2022, which will provide data on cracking, roughness, rutting and strength. A new method of pavement strength testing will be applied in the contract, called “multispeed deflectometer”. This will improve the coverage of strength data and
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