Drought Hits Local Roads

THE cost of maintaining roads in the Upper Hunter Shire Council area is escalating due to the drought, with extra costs in water carting and road grading not lasting.

There is 954km of unsealed roads in the Shire, which cost approximately $1.9 million to grade, $500,000 gravel resheet and have three maintenance grading crews working full-time battling deteriorating conditions.

Council issued a statement which said they appreciate how important road maintenance is and asking motorists to drive with care on unsealed roads, including reducing speed. 

On average each maintenance grader team is using between 40,000 and 100,000 litres of water each day to grade between 1 and 3 kilometres of unsealed road.

Normally, the crews would draw water from rivers and dams, but during the drought they have to cart water from further away costing an additional $1,000 a day.

The total cost of road maintenance, including sealed roads is $2.4M a year, or $9,600 each weekday.