July 24, 2016
Work on building Memerambi Estate’s missing infrastructure should be completed by the end of this month.
Roads portfolio chair Cr Spud Jones told last week’s South Burnett Regional Council meeting that a $2.1 million “benefitted area” arrangement struck between the Council and property owners last year was nearing completion.
Conclusion of the work will allow the Estate’s property owners to begin moving into their houses and start the process of bringing them up to full completion.
Most houses on the Estate were only partially complete when developer Summit View Meritor went into liquidation in August 2013.
Summit View Meritor had exploited a hole in the Kingaroy Shire Planning Scheme to build houses before it built the infrastructure to support them.
It was able to do this because the Estate was located on an historical subdivision.
The company was also using a complex financing arrangement that saw it paid for houses sold on the Estate when they reached 80 per cent completion.
It had planned to install the missing infrastructure and complete the remaining building work once a target number of houses had been sold.
However, the scheme collapsed in the fallout from the Global Financial Crisis, leaving owners unable to occupy their partially-built homes until the area was made habitable.
The work of building the Estate’s missing roads and drainage infrastructure is being undertaken by Newlands Construction, Cr Jones said.
The Estate’s internal roads were sealed mid-month, and most remaining work was focussed on installing drainage infrastructure next to the Bunya Highway.
Providing the weather holds, the final items of work should be finished by the end of July, as scheduled.
Owners will then repay their share of the cost over the next 10 years through a surcharge on their rates.
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Council’s grader crews will be working in five different locations over the next few weeks.
Works have been programmed for the Glan Devon, Johnstown, Inverlaw, Hivesville and Mt McEuen areas, Cr Jones said.
A grader crew will also be in the northern Boondooma area by the end of the month.
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There has been a lot of road work in the Blackbutt area recently.
Cr Jones reported the stormwater main in Coulson Street is getting close to completion, and the only section yet to be done is the area between Sutton and Pine streets on the southern side.
The reconstruction of Pine Street between the medical centre and police station from Coulson to Fern streets is also progressing well, and a concrete footpath in front of the medical centre is half complete.
Meanwhile, clearing, drainage and earthworks on the Blackbutt-Crows Nest Road is finished and a run course of gravel has been laid.
Cr Jones said further work on the road would be suspended for a few weeks so council workers can repair badly worn shoulders on a single lane section west of the project.
After this, they’ll return to the Blackbutt-Crows Nest Road to fully gravel and seal the project – a process that’s expected to take several more weeks.
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In Kingaroy, earthworks on the Clark & Swendson Road project are complete and in the next few weeks workers will install scour protection along the diversion drain near Swickers and beside the floodway.
The next major section of work will be to put a concrete surface on the floodway, and finish gravelling and sealing the road works.
After this, attention will shift to the Kingaroy-Barkers Creek Road.
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Ten submissions were received for a tender which closed in early July to replace timber bridges at Kings Bridge Road in Wyalla and Silverleaf Road at Marshlands.
At last Wednesday’s meeting, Councillors voted to award the contract for this work to Kay and Associates Pty Ltd for $1,506,000.
Work on replacing the Stonelands Road timber bridge at Stonelands with large box culverts is also progressing.
Cr Jones said an environmental impact assessment report has been completed and is currently being reviewed.
