Gone to pot: Many Hastings motorists have complained about the state of our roads.
IT’S something most road users already know. Now there is solid proof. Our roads are deteriorating.
A council survey released this week shows a significant decline in road conditions in the past four years.
But Port Macquarie-Hastings Council says it will address the problem and this week named a top-10 road priority list.
Ocean Drive, Pacific Drive, Cameron Street and Fernhill Road are some of the thoroughfares most motorists will have most issues with.
Council director of infrastructure services Jeff Sharp said the results of the survey confirmed what many people already knew.
A total of 1364 roads in the district were surveyed earlier this year with laser and video technology.
The results were presented at the meeting held at Wauchope Senior Citizens’ Hall on Wednesday night.
“It certainly reinforces what the community has been telling us and what all of us as road users have seen,” Mr Sharp said.
Roughness, defects, cracking and position of the roads were taken into account in rankings.
The roads to make the list may not all have works completed – or even started – in the 2012/13 financial year, Mr Sharp said.
The survey found roads were in a fair to poor condition overall, based on a scale of excellent, very good, fair and poor.
“It’s limited by our finiancial allocation, [but] this will address some of the high-risk areas,” he said.
Mr Sharp said the roads in the top 10 will likely remain the same.
But which sections of these roads are tackled first could be changed. Road damage was due to the age of the road network, traffic growth and the wet conditions over the past three years, he said.
“This is the first cut of the data and it certainly has been a hot topic.” Council will now conduct a road survey each year.