Residents on the Old Mendooran Road are frustrated by the road’s deteriorating condition and the amount they are spending to repair their vehicles.
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In the Budget and Operational Plan for 2018/19 – which was adopted at the Dubbo Regional Council meeting on Monday night – $35.17 million has been allocated for roads across the next four years. It includes $9.9 million for urban roads capital works in 2018/19 and $3.28 million for rural roads.
Libby McMahon, who has lived on the Old Mendooran Road for 22 years, was one of multiple residents who called for road improvements at the meeting.
“Over this time council has partially sealed this road however with the inclusion of the new bridge being constructed we have noticed a significant increase in the amount of traffic using Old Mendooran Road and along this, the deterioration of our road on the gravel parts,” Ms McMahon said.
“People are not happy.”
Using the road was costing residents a “small fortune” from flat tyres and cracked windscreens, Ms McMahon said.
There were 1.7 kilometres of the Old Mendooran Road which were scheduled to be tarred recently. However, Ms McMahon said when Shearer Contracting, the company constructing the Wheelers Lane Roundabout, went into voluntary administration, council staff were pulled from Old Mendooran Road to complete the project.
Another resident said Ballimore road was in desperate need of improvement. The road was “very, very and a bit more very, rough”, he said.
Council director infrastructure and operations Chris Devitt said the expansive rural road network was one of the challenges facing the new council.
Mr Devitt said he was aware of numerous requests across the local government area for roads to be sealed.
In the next six months Mr Devitt said council would develop a comprehensive road strategy that looked at gravel and sealed rural roads, as well as the city’s urban roads. It would help council identify external funding opportunities, he said.