Council maintained roads are of vital importance and it is essential that these assets are well maintained as they provide routes for the majority of freight around the country, connect remote communities and provide access for tourists and residents.
Low volume roads have various definitions with Austroads (2000) defining them as 1000 vpd however incrementally at 100, 200 and 400 vpd, the design standard changes. Other publications and authors such as ARRB and Brodie define low volume roads as less than 400 or 500 vpd. Based on these definitions virtually all Scenic Rim roads would be considered low volume (the high volume roads are all DTMR maintained), therefore Scenic Rim have adopted their own definition of a low volume road. The Scenic …show more content…
Councils Low Volume Road Maintenance Objective
The basic objective is to provide a satisfactory level of service to road users through appropriate road network maintenance activities. There are two Works Department bases which facilitate road maintenance activities in the Scenic Rim area; Beaudesert and Boonah. A variety of maintenance activities are performed on the road network including grading, table drain correction, scarifying, reshaping, resealing, sealing and patching work.
The bulk of work involves scheduled maintenance activities which coincide with and satisfy historical level of service requirements. The balance of the response is reactive, driven by ratepayer complaints and Councillor requests. Flood events in 2011 and 2013 impacted the network significantly and overall despite flood rebuilding funding from the federal government it is indicated Council ended up with impacted roads reducing in value by 10%. Whilst a reasonable amount of flood recovery funding was made available, only roads damaged badly enough were at an intervention level high enough to trigger this funding. Many roads were badly damaged but not badly enough to warrant this funding therefore Council are still left with a large repair …show more content…
These levels may not be long term sustainable,
• Natural disasters; The floods of 2011 and 2013 impacted the area greatly. Roads and bridges which met an 'intervention level' received federal funding however those which were still negatively impacted but failed to meet this intervention level, now require maintenance which wasn't budgeted for
• Increasing competition for Council funds,
• Materials availability; historically materials were sourced from local 'borrow pits'. This taking of this material is now highly regulated under state environmental and planning regulations. Material generally comes from large commercial quarries and has to be trucked long distances.
• Rising construction and maintenance costs,
• Road safety and liability issues,
• Maintenance activities being delayed until they are no longer
Low volume roads have various definitions with Austroads (2000) defining them as 1000 vpd however incrementally at 100, 200 and 400 vpd, the design standard changes. Other publications and authors such as ARRB and Brodie define low volume roads as less than 400 or 500 vpd. Based on these definitions virtually all Scenic Rim roads would be considered low volume (the high volume roads are all DTMR maintained), therefore Scenic Rim have adopted their own definition of a low volume road. The Scenic …show more content…
Councils Low Volume Road Maintenance Objective
The basic objective is to provide a satisfactory level of service to road users through appropriate road network maintenance activities. There are two Works Department bases which facilitate road maintenance activities in the Scenic Rim area; Beaudesert and Boonah. A variety of maintenance activities are performed on the road network including grading, table drain correction, scarifying, reshaping, resealing, sealing and patching work.
The bulk of work involves scheduled maintenance activities which coincide with and satisfy historical level of service requirements. The balance of the response is reactive, driven by ratepayer complaints and Councillor requests. Flood events in 2011 and 2013 impacted the network significantly and overall despite flood rebuilding funding from the federal government it is indicated Council ended up with impacted roads reducing in value by 10%. Whilst a reasonable amount of flood recovery funding was made available, only roads damaged badly enough were at an intervention level high enough to trigger this funding. Many roads were badly damaged but not badly enough to warrant this funding therefore Council are still left with a large repair …show more content…
These levels may not be long term sustainable,
• Natural disasters; The floods of 2011 and 2013 impacted the area greatly. Roads and bridges which met an 'intervention level' received federal funding however those which were still negatively impacted but failed to meet this intervention level, now require maintenance which wasn't budgeted for
• Increasing competition for Council funds,
• Materials availability; historically materials were sourced from local 'borrow pits'. This taking of this material is now highly regulated under state environmental and planning regulations. Material generally comes from large commercial quarries and has to be trucked long distances.
• Rising construction and maintenance costs,
• Road safety and liability issues,
• Maintenance activities being delayed until they are no longer