When it rains it potholes

Published on 15 February 2021

From the Mayor's Desk

While the country girl in me will forever love the sight of rain, when I put my council hat on, I always get nervous when I see a heavy downpour because I know it means one thing.

Potholes.

For all the good that rain brings, one downside is that it also eats away at our roads. When we had the heavy rains over the holidays, I knew it would mean the roads would start to pothole just as our maintenance teams were on a well-earned break.

It sounds obvious when you say it, but the rain falls on much of the shire at the same time. But we aren’t equipped to send a team out to all of our 1250km of roads at once. The repairs take longer than the problems and that means damaged roads and justifiably unhappy residents.

So, if you’ve got a bad road in your life at the moment, you’re not alone. Council is committed to improving the road network and Council crews have been busy patching potholes and grading gravel roads and have welcomed the community’s assistance in locating damage that emerged during the recent deluge.

The initial priority went to roads that had become impassable, like the landslip on Armidale Road, or that had deteriorated to extreme levels, such as Point Plomer Road and Pipers Creek Road.

After that, Council has to think like a hospital emergency room. Fixing roads can't be done on a first-come, first-serve basis. Council has to prioritise the treatment of cases according to a number of pre-determined attributes such as road classification, traffic volumes and speed limits.

It means there may well be potholes you see regularly that don’t seem to be getting any attention, however Council does carry out inspections of all road surfaces on a regular basis to determine the priority for improvement and preventative maintenance.

Still, while we have repair crews on the job, Council wants residents to keep their eyes peeled and report damaged roads. You can use the Snap Send Solve app, send an email to ksc@kempsey.nsw.gov.au or contact council’s Customer Contact Centre on 6566 3200.

After that you may need to be patient, and drive to conditions for a while, until the work can get done. At Council we are committed to getting through it.