{"id":58104,"date":"2014-02-20T23:43:21","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T13:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=58104"},"modified":"2020-12-07T10:29:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T00:29:23","slug":"inspectors-check-on-road-repairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/02\/20\/inspectors-check-on-road-repairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspectors Check On Road Repairs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Burnett Regional Council CEO Ken McLoughlin, Mayor Wayne Kratzmann,\u00a0Reconstruction Inspectorate chairman John Fahey and Roads portfolio holder Cr Damien Tessmann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

February 20, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Four of the South Burnett’s flood repairs sites were put under the microscope today by members of the Australian Government Reconstruction Inspectorate.<\/p>\n

The Inspectorate, established in February 2011 and headed by former NSW Premier John Fahey, reports directly to Prime Minister Tony Abbott.<\/p>\n

It checks that repairs the Federal Government has funded have been done in accordance with the rules and were “value for money”.<\/p>\n

Mr Fahey said the Inspectorate met regularly. It \u00a0“sampled” the 2500 projects that had been funded since the 2011 floods.<\/p>\n

“We’ll probably do about 135 at the desktop level,” Mr Fahey said.<\/p>\n

Other projects that had been selected at random were being inspected “on the road”.<\/p>\n

In the South Burnett Regional Council area, the Inspectorate visited the River Road repairs completed with “Betterment Funding” from the State and Federal Governments and the South Burnett Regional Council.<\/p>\n

Other sites inspected were gravel repairs, made after the 2011 floods, at Weens Road at Crawford and J Hunters Road at Ballogie.<\/p>\n

The Inspectorate also visited Andersons Road at Cushnie.<\/p>\n

Mr Fahey said the Inspectorate cast an eye over the huge Blackbutt Range reconstruction yesterday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This project, in Somerset Shire, had raised flags when the cost blew out from $26 million to $75 million.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Fahey said that after inspecting the project, the Inspectorate understood the engineering challenges that the project had faced.<\/p>\n

He said the quality of the job was “exceptional” and it was a road built to last.<\/p>\n