ACCORDING to annual surveys, road condition is by far the biggest source of dissatisfaction for Port Stephens residents, with ratings lower than both the state and national averages.
To combat deterioration a new Road Futures Strategy, currently on public exhibition, has been endorsed by Port Stephens Council (PSC), outlining how the region’s roads will be improved over the next 10 years.
“Fundamentally, all the governments in the western world are not spending enough money on road networks,” said John Maretich, Asset Manager at PSC, who argued that the state of the roads was hardly a problem limited to Port Stephens.
“Some of the councils out west would accept a lower standard on some of their local roads […], whereas we’re becoming more and more regional, so expectations are higher.”
The new Road Futures Strategy will employ a pragmatic approach by surveying the quality of the pavement throughout Port Stephens and focusing resources on the main connecting roads, such as Lemon Tree Passage Road and Medowie Road.
“If [a road] is rated quite poorly, we may have to wait and rebuild the road.
“If it’s sort of OK, we may do what we call heavy patching.
“If it’s quite new, we may get away with just doing some resealing.”
The strategy will involve a combination of maintenance and prevention, especially to avoid damage from heavy rain.
Some of the lower-priority roads may be left as they are as long as they don’t present a safety risk.
While the plan is for the long-term, and changes may only become apparent later down the line, there are several things that the community can look out for.
“In the short term you’ll see some of the smaller trucks going and repairing roads at a much faster rate,” said Mr. Maretich.
“Some of the pothole material will hopefully stick in the holes much longer now. […] What we’ll see is an increase in our maintenance.”
PSC is still reviewing financial models, with the most interesting scenario involving the increase of funding by an additional $1 million per year until the annual extra reaches $10 million per year.
At this stage, most of the funding will come from Council’s review of end-of-year financial accounts, but the matter is still subject to discussion.
The Road Futures Update is available for public exhibition on PSC’s website at (https://www.portstephens.nsw.gov.au/council/public-exhibitions/current-public-exhibitions), and will remain so until 9 September.
By Nico LOMBARDO
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