Road damage irks residents

A number of residents have contacted the Southern Free Times this week fed up with the poor road conditions in the Southern Downs region.
Although they realised the flood damage in the region was extensive, they were annoyed that nearly a year has passed since the floods and yet there were a number of streets still in bad condition.
Southern Downs Regional Council director of engineering services Peter See said the council had spent close to $2 million on the full assessments of the roads and were carrying out repairs as fast as they could.
“There are 1060 roads across the region, which have some form of flood damage on them,” Mr See said.
“We are working on maintaining the road network within the limitations of not fully repairing the roads until the funding is approved by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority,” he said.
“They received our first claim about one month ago and will receive the 35th and final claim at the end of February.
“Tenders will be called in the new calendar year to have the repairs carried out.”
Mr See says the council crews are working five days a week on road maintenance.
“If people have complaints about their roads they need to ring council’s customer service number or write to the council. There are 3000km of roads and we simply do not know the condition of every road at all times.”
Fitzroy and Condamine streets were of particular concern to residents since they were in the main part of Warwick.
Mr See said Fitzroy Street is part of a reconstruction project, which is being designed, whereas repairs to Condamine Street are due soon.
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