The completion of Kooringal Road’s rehabilitation between Lake Albert Road and Vincent Road will resume early next year utilising a new pavement design and construction methodology which will significantly reduce the time to complete the project.
Wagga Wagga City Council has postponed works on Kooringal Road until January/February next year.
This is due to ongoing unfavourable weather conditions for the road works and the Australian Government granting an extension for the completion of all Local Road and Community Infrastructure Round 1 projects to 30 June 2022 because of the impacts of COVID-19.
Council’s Director Infrastructure Services Warren Faulkner confirmed today the scheduled works on Kooringal Road for this November and December have been pushed back to ensure disruption to the community is minimised.
He said regular rain events through the spring have made conditions difficult for the planned road works. The forecast for continued inclement weather through to Christmas has prompted Council to look at other innovative technologies and methodologies to complete the works.
Mr Faulkner recognised there has been a number of issues on this project owing to various factors which have combined to impact the timeline of the works.
“We are going to trial a new pavement rehabilitation methodology that utilises specialised machines to recycle and strengthen the existing pavement, thus reducing the need to remove and import significant quantities of material that takes considerable time and effort,” Mr Faulkner said.
He said he understood the community’s frustrations involved in delayed road works but wanted to ensure that the works were undertaken as efficiently as possible to minimise disruption to the community.
“It is not normal to have this many delays on one project and there’s a number of factors which have not helped Council in trying to get to the end of these works,” Mr Faulkner said.
“The above average rainfall and cold temperatures we experienced in winter took its toll and we’ve seen that continue in spring.
“Building roads in winter is never ideal but we were being driven by Federal funding deadlines so we had to plan to make a start in the spring to meet the 31 December finish.”
Mr Faulkner said the announcement in October by Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to extend the completion timeframe for Round 1 and 2 projects to 30 June 2022 has given Council the opportunity to defer the works until more favourable weather conditions are forecast.
He said there are many advantages to trialling the new pavement rehabilitation methodology and delaying the project until early next year for this to happen.
“Utilising this style of road building could see the 800-metre section of Kooringal Road finished in two weeks if all goes to plan,” Mr Faulkner said.
“This is a significant difference to 10 weeks as was originally planned.
“Traffic management services will be required for less time, detours and disruptions for residents will be minimised and the adjoining road network will be under less pressure with increased traffic.
“The lead contractor has an innovative approach that is second to none and we’re confident it will leave a finished product that Council, the residents and the users of Kooringal Road will be more than satisfied with.”
Mr Faulkner said Council continues to work on patching repairs across the city but again emphasised the regular rain events have caused more surface deterioration in certain areas.
“There’s no doubt we are playing catch up on a lot of pothole repairs,” Mr Faulkner said.
“Where funding is available, we continue to do road patching maintenance and respond to residents’ customer service requests.
“We are always planning ahead for road rehabilitation projects and much of this is dependant upon funding sources from the State and Federal governments.
“We continue to apply for this funding and utilise it when it becomes available, but there are limitations in funding.”
Council is currently working on the Lake Albert Road Stage 3 Rehabilitation project and has completed preliminary works on Dobney Avenue and Pearson Street ready for the main scope of works to start on that project in January/February next year.
