Page 2980 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 12 October 2022
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(b) damage caused by rain on the ACT road network is not unique, with states and territories across the east coast of Australia encountering similar damage due to increased rainfall;
(c) this month, the Government is temporarily repairing potholes with a focus on the most dangerous damage, noting the difficulties of effecting repairs during the rain and colder periods of the year;
(d) 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;
(e) roads crews are working around the clock in what are very difficult and unpredictable conditions to provide the ACT community with a safe and reliable road network;
(f) Roads ACT repaired almost 8,000 potholes in the last financial year, and over 1,100 in August 2022 alone, compared to an average of 3,000 in a typical year;
(g) Roads ACT has provided additional resources to locate and fill potholes throughout the road network, including extending contractor resources; and
(h) Roads ACT is working with established experts, including the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB), and has been undertaking an updated road network condition assessment, as part of the development of an evidence-base to inform the future strategic road maintenance program; and
(2) calls on the Government to:
(a) encourage Canberrans to report potholes via Fix My Street to help Roads ACT in quickly identifying and responding to road defects; and
(b) provide the Assembly with an update on the ACT Government’s strategic roads maintenance program, which considers the research underway and changing climate conditions, in the first sitting week in 2023.”.
MS CLAY (Ginninderra) (4.39): I want to speak briefly on Ms Lawder’s motion and the amendments circulated by Minister Steel and Ms Lawder. I would like to thank Ms Lawder for bringing this motion forward. Canberra’s potholes are a big concern for a lot of people at the moment and we all understand why. We have had a couple of years of really heavy rain from La Niña weather. Prior to that, Canberra had some of the best roads in the country.
I was recently at the South Coast. I pop down to Broulee quite a lot. I did notice that the regional roads on the way there and the way back were actually in an even worse state. We know this is happening everywhere and it is a real problem. We have had a lot of rain. It is sustained. It is over a much longer period than we are used to. This is part of climate change. We are getting different weather patterns. These weather patterns are going to get worse and we just have to adapt to those challenges.
Government is doing quite a lot to fix the roads. We have heard a lot from the minister about the ongoing program that is in place, about the strategy behind the
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