If you think Wagga has the worst roads in NSW, you might be right, according to a new study conducted by NRMA. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
According to a new NRMA report, Wagga Wagga City Council has the third largest backlog of required roadworks of any local government area (LGA) in NSW.
At an estimated $180 million, the cost to fix Wagga’s roads is $100 million higher than any metropolitan LGA and sits only behind Clarence Valley ($390 million) and Mid-Coast ($215 million).
Despite the massive figure, Wagga councillor Lindsay Tanner said the estimated cost was not surprising, but he insisted he and the council were looking at methods to address the issue.
“I think those figures are not a surprise and quite well known, and they’re represented in council’s asset management plans,” Mr Tanner said.
“They are fundamentally one of the biggest challenges council faces, and it’s part of the platform that I ran on during the election last year.
“One of the things I’m trying to do is to improve council’s funding towards roads. The current long-term financial plan addresses the shortfall, but what it doesn’t do is account for the increasing deterioration of the network.
“So we need to accelerate the funding somehow. That’s what I’m endeavouring to do by seeking a notice of motion for council to reduce its expenses by 5 per cent and to put that money towards roads as one mechanism to increase our funding for road renewal.”
Mr Tanner said contributing factors to the backlog were the size of the Wagga LGA and the manpower it took to maintain the region’s roads.
“It is absolutely easier said than done,” Mr Tanner said.
“The work that council staff and contractors do on our road network is excellent. But they also face challenges. The challenge for us is money and finding funding, and there is a need for us to focus on our other existing infrastructure as well.
“Maintaining what we own already whilst continuing to grow our network is not an easy task; it’s not an easy answer.
“That’s largely to do with the size of the local government areas. We’ve always got 1212 km of sealed road and 1157 km of unsealed road. That’s an enormous network. There are very few local government areas in the city that have anything like that.
“Local road networks are difficult to fund at the best of times; it’s even more challenging when you have a network the size of Wagga’s.”
Following NRMA’s findings, the insurance provider is calling on the Federal Government to increase funding specifically directed towards councils for road maintenance and to consolidate the disparate funding programs that councils need to access to receive the funding.
“Councils maintain the overwhelming majority of the bitumen we drive on in NSW and as evidenced by this NRMA report, they need help, especially regional councils,” NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said.
“Funding required by NSW councils has jumped 75 per cent in just seven years, which highlights the need for how and by how much the Federal and State governments need to support councils in this crucial work.
“Improving these roads will help bring down the road toll – a challenge the state continues to struggle with – and it boosts economic output; as we know 90 per cent of interstate freight occurs by road.”
