September 18, 2019
South Burnett Regional Council seems to be on track to make good on its promise to grade every unsealed road in the region at least once a year.
At Wednesday’s monthly meeting, Cr Gavin Jones said roughly half the region’s 3200km road network was unsealed.
All the same – thanks to new methods and hard work by Council’s road maintenance crews – he was confident all unsealed roads would have received attention by Christmas.
Even better, many roads may receive more than one grade per year in future once the Council’s gravel resheeting program begins to pay dividends in reduced future maintenance demands.
Presenting his monthly Roads portfolio report, Cr Jones said road crews have another demanding month of work scheduled.
The following roads will receive gravel resheeting and heavy formation grades between September and November:
- Wilsons Road, near Kingaroy
- O’Dea Road, Wilkesdale
- Farmers Road, Abbeywood
- Mondure Crossing Road, Mondure
- Wooden Hut Road, near Kingaroy
- Red Hill Road, Chelmsford
- Robin and Lee Road, Booie
- Mustons Road, Haly Creek
- Wattlegrove Road, Wattle Grove
In September, shoulder maintenance will be carried out on the Bunya Mountains Road, Kingaroy-Cooyar Road and the D’Aguilar Highway; and the Maidenwell-Bunya Mountains Road and Nanango-Tarong Road in October.
The Gayndah-Hivesville Road will get shoulder resheeting between September and November.
During September, patrol grading will also be carried out on 45 roads in the Alice Creek, Ballogie, Benair, Dangore, Goodger, Haly Creek, Kumbia and Mannuem areas.
And with temperatures rising, boom mowing will be carried out at Williams Road in North Benarkin; Griffin Road in Blackbutt; Crumpton Drive and Anita Road in Blackbutt North; the Bunya Mountains Road; and Taromeo Rise at Taromeo.
Deputy Mayor Kathy Duff said Council’s customer contacts over road complaints had improved noticeably this year.
“I have been a fierce critic of this in the past,” Cr Duff said.
“However I’m now receiving reports that people who ring up about their road get an answer back from staff telling them when their road is scheduled for attention.
“This is a model other areas of Council should look at, I think.”
Cr Jones agreed.
“When I took on the Roads portfolio, complaints about roads topped the list of customer complaints by a long way,” he said.
“Now there are about 100 to 200 complaints on the books at any time, and most people get a response within one to two days.”
Cr Jones said he was looking forward to the next release of Council’s customer contact statistics.
He hoped they would show that roads were now well down on the list of things that annoy residents.
