New ‘heavy patch’ road works underway across the Mountains

Blue Mountains City Council has commenced an escalated city-wide road fixing program, to address the extensive damage caused by the recent natural disaster and flooding.

Since March Council has received reports of pot holes, and other road damage, on a scale never before seen. Councils across the State are facing a similar situation. In response, Council has allocated extra funding, teams and equipment to systematically address the issue.

Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill said: “I’m happy to report that an escalated phase of road repairs is well underway, in response to the flooding event that occurred at the end of March.

“We are all keen for this work to be done quickly, but the reality is that major projects like this do take some time. So, once again, I’m asking the community for patience and understanding.

“We have had one of the wettest summers on record, which has not only damaged roads and infrastructure, but hampered our ability to respond. Patching wet roads or roads with wet sub-base is rarely successful.”

Drier conditions are allowing Council crews to increase the response to this issue exponentially, and this will continue to occur over the coming weeks.

The race is on to complete as much of this work as possible before the weather gets too cold, particularly in the upper Blue Mountain, as this can also impact repair work. Blue Mountains City Council CEO Dr Rosemary Dillon said: “Paint marks that have been appearing on roads recently, is a sign that crews will be back to commence work in these areas shortly. 

“Council is working on a scale not seen before, to address these extraordinary issues.

“We’ve allocated extra funding and hired in additional machinery to help the Infrastructure Services team systematically address the issues and repairs, and to the highest standard.”

Council has identified approximately 4000square metres of repairs that need to be completed on local roads.  The new program involves ‘heavy patch’ works. These are a long-term type of repair which involves cutting up the pavement, assessing and replacing the road base where necessary, and putting a new seal in place.

If you would like to report a pothole, or road damage, please contact Council via eServices at bmcc.nsw.gov.au/eservices. You can also email Council at [email protected]  or call Council on 4723 5000 (lower mountains) or 4780 5000 (upper mountains).