Letter to the Editor: More on Port Stephens potholes

DEAR News Of The Area,

I AGREE with the comments made by D Heath in a recent issue of the News of the Area regarding the importance of building a pavement on top of a competent subgrade (or base and sub-base as Mr Heath mentioned) capable of supporting the traffic conditions.

He also makes a comment about the competency of the roads built by the Romans centuries ago.

More relevant to modern day road design and construction is the work done by a Scotsman, John McAdam, around 1820 where he developed a pavement type made up of several thin layers of densely compacted crushed rock – a basic principle often used in the design and construction of today’s roads.

These pavements are known as macadam pavements and crushed rock is preferred to rounded river gravels in the upper layers because the angular nature of crushed aggregates lock together much better.

In some instances where potholing has occurred, it appears that river gravels have been placed directly under the bitumen seal.

A further observation is that it appears that council roads have suffered significantly more damage than those constructed and funded by either the Federal or the State governments.

I also read an article recently which commented on the dreadful condition of the Medowie and Lemon Tree Passage roads noting that these are apparently under the care and management of the Shire of Port Stephens and are also trafficked by up to about 15000 vehicles per day (VPD).

Such high volumes suggest that there is also a higher percentage of vehicles with heavy axle loads which do significantly more damage than your average sedan or SUV.

It would seem more appropriate to have all roads carrying more than 5000 VPD be placed under care and management of either the state or federal governments.

This would then result in such roads being funded by fuel taxes and also the recently suggested excise placed on EVs which are not, at this stage, contributing to the costs of road construction and maintenance.

Should this suggestion be adopted the heavy burden carried by ratepayers of funding roads would noticeably be reduced. The reality is that local governments are less likely to be in a strong financial position to construct and maintain major roads to an acceptable standard.

Regards,
P HENSLEY,
Corlette.