$1 million damage bill after rain

THE recent wet weather has meant the Bundaberg Regional Council has had to allocate an extra $1 million to road maintenance and repair, Cr Wayne Honor said.

Cr Honor said this year just over $12 million had been allocated to road maintenance, and the extra money had been redirected from the capital works program.

“We have two crews constantly on the road working on road maintenance and drainage, and decisions have had to be made about priorities,” he said.

“The engineers are assessing how many more staff we will have to put on maintenance.”

Cr Honor said the council staff had to prioritise their tasks and direct resources where they were most needed, taking into account factors such as the size of potholes, their depth and how bad they were.

The extent of the damage had to be assessed before decisions could be made on repairs.

“Where there’s a major washout it has to be signed, and safety is a major issue,” he said.

“There has been significant surface damage across all roads.”

Cr Honor said motorists should proceed with extreme caution, especially where there was water across the road.

“The real danger now is if we get significant storm rain up in the catchment, because the ground is so wet we’ll get fast run-off and that can cause serious damage,” he said.