Council flood repairs reaching major milestone
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Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) has reached a major milestone in the Flood Recovery Program, replacing the last of the 42 culverts and floodways that were severely impacted by the Southern Queensland Heavy Rainfall and Flooding event during February 2020.
TRC Infrastructure Committee Chair Cr Carol Taylor said progress in the Flood Recovery Program for the 2020 flooding event had been plagued with successive flood events impeding access for repairs and compounding damage, coupled with the difficulty in securing construction materials due to large demand from other regions also impacted by flooding.
“It’s great to see the completion of these projects, which will provide improved road infrastructure into the future,” Cr Taylor said.
Works related to the Flood Recovery Program for the 2020 flooding event included more than 330km of gravel road treatments, silt and material removal of 80,000m³, and more than 120 culvert repairs, including some replacements across about 3400 locations. These works totalled more than $30 million across the full program, jointly funded by the Australian Government and Queensland Government under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
Works most recently completed include culverts and floodways at Bourke Road, Sandy Camp; Leslie Bridge Road, North Branch; Carroll Road at Hodgson Vale in the southern areas and Cooyar-Mount Binga Road, Cooyar and Kooralgin-Gilla Road at Wutul in the northern areas.
“Closing out the February 2020 Flood Recovery Works Program means that our teams can now turn all their attention to the Flood Recovery Program from the more recent flooding events,” Cr Taylor said.
“Council recently fast-tracked more than $6 million in priority flood repairs for the recent flood events, and the Flood Recovery Team is working closely with Queensland Reconstruction Authority to ensure funding for these works can be recovered at a later date.
“Priority repairs have now kicked off across the Region with the first roads being addressed, including Gowrie Little Plain Road, Ted Mengel Road, Nobby and Pierces Creek Road at Emu Creek.”
Caption: Culvert repairs have been completed at Oakey Crosshill Road, Oakey (top) and Newman Road, Wyreema (below).