Councillor Lindsay Tanner presented a notice of motion requesting WWCC receive a report on the advantages of listing line markings on roads as a separate asset from the condition of existing roads. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Wagga Councillor Lindsay Tanner has successfully pushed for Wagga Wagga City Council (WWCC) to look into recognising line markings on sealed roads as a council asset.
The notice of motion was presented to councillors on Monday 20 January and requested that council receive a report on the advantages of making road line markings a separate asset.
Council does not recognise line marking of sealed roads as a discrete asset and, as such, does not allocate a budget or renewal schedule for the maintenance of existing line marking.
“I put up a notice of motion in relation to treating line marking as an asset class,” Cr Tanner said.
“There’s a whole bunch of science around the way we manage assets and infrastructure, including condition rating, understanding where and when assets are deteriorating and when you need to replace them.
“Line marking is a particularly important asset from a road safety perspective.”
Mr Tanner said research showed that line markings that were up to a certain standard could lead to a significant reduction in road-related incidents.
“In areas like ours, where we have a large number of regional and rural roads, line marking is pretty important for the decisions that drivers make,” Cr Tanner said.
“Line marking typically lasts a couple of years before they start to fade.
“[Wagga] City Council doesn’t track its line marking, nor does it fund any renewal of line marking. So our line marking deteriorates, unbeknownst to council, and there’s no sort of condition mapping of that network of line marking to understand where we should be replacing.
“There are around 60,000 kilometres of line markings in the LGA [local government area] that are uncontrolled and unrated.
“This notice of motion is calling for that asset to be treated as its own discrete asset class and to be monitored, managed and treated globally.
WWCC’s acting General Manager Carolyn Rodney said WWCC was on a path to improve its asset management data and that listing line markings as a separate asset could help in doing so.
“Our asset management data is about making informed decisions and prioritising our works to ensure that we’re getting around to the right roads at the right time,” she said.
“We don’t currently have the line marking data. When you update a pavement and renew the road, you obviously renew the line marking on that road. So in regards to the existing network, though, if the road pavement hasn’t been affected, we don’t have the data on that.”
Loading ...
