Walking the line: Beverley Izard says the holes in the road should have been fixed before the lines were marked.
A SANCROX resident has questioned why the council spent money on line marking instead of road repairs.
Line marking was recently completed on Sancrox Road and Rawdon Island Road west of Port Macquarie.
Sancrox resident Beverley Izard said both roads were full of bumps and no markings delineated the road sides as the asphalt merged seamlessly into the landscape.
Mrs Izard was curious about why so much money was spent line marking the country roads, which had very little traffic during the day except in peak hour, instead of fixing the “pot caverns” and “humps”.
“If you wish to avoid a cavern or road hump now, you have to cross over these lines, thus technically leaving yourself open to litigation,” she said.
Mrs Izard has seen vehicles doing just that.
The council is the roads authority for the more than 1300 kilometres of roads and is charged with the responsibility of minimising hazards and risks associated with the road network.
Council’s group manager infrastructure operations, Gary Randall, said line marking of sealed roads contributed significantly to providing a safe road network and council monitored, inspected, prioritised and maintained line marking based on risk and public safety.
“Council is currently undertaking to re-mark the lines of many roads across the local government area and is utilising the NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) to complete these works,” he said.
Sancrox and Rawdon Island roads form part of this works list in addition to recently completed line marking improvements to Ocean Drive and Stoney Creek Road.
“Clear line marking and delineation improves traffic safety and under no circumstances would council condone nor encourage motorists to disregard the road rules and cross to the incorrect side of the road irrespective of the presence of the marked centre line,” Mr Randall said.
The council continues to reinforce to motorists to drive to the road conditions, and report all road condition-related issues or defects to the council.
