Roads – what we do and how we do it

How Council builds, upgrades and maintains a safe and connected local road network
A new campaign aimed at providing easier access to information on the Tweed’s road network, including roadworks and alerts during severe weather events, is being launched by Council today.
The campaign responds to feedback from residents, such as through community surveys, where roads ranked as one of the highest priority services that Council provides.
Council is generally responsible for public roads in the Tweed except the Pacific Motorway and Gold Coast Highway, which are the responsibility of Transport for New South Wales.
Acting Director of Engineering Danny Rose said Council looks after more than 1000 km of sealed roads and about 170 km of unsealed gravel roads.
“With an asset value of $750 million, looking after all of our local roads and bridges and prioritising where to spend our road maintenance money is a complicated task,” Mr Rose said.
“We set aside about $15 million per year on renewing and maintaining our road networks, equating to approximately 10% of Council’s annual General Fund budget. This money comes from general rates and grant assistance from government.
“Another $7.5 million is spent on the upkeep of roadside vegetation, signage and line-marking, roadside drainage, footpaths and bridges.
“Road safety grants such as Black Spot funding are additional and can also account for several million dollars per year, depending on the projects involved.”
The provision of roads, including works such as upgrades and maintenance and improving road safety, is consistently one of the most important services as ranked by the Tweed community in Council’s Be Our Best Resident Survey. It is also an area where our communit said they would like to receive more information. The biannual survey highlights community perceptions of Council’s overall performance of its services and facilities.
The new campaign has been created in direct response to this community feedback and includes a new roads webpage aimed at providing a one-stop shop to road information in the Tweed Shire.
“The survey results showed us very few residents were aware of our road delivery program and the community is generally unaware of when and how roads will be fixed and maintained,” Mr Rose said.
“From this week we will start proactive communications to educate the community about our roads program.
“At the heart of this initiative is informing our community how hard we are working to build, upgrade and maintain a safe and connected local road network. To do this, we’re:

• building and upgrading local roads for our growing population
• maintaining around 1200 km of local and regional roads
• responding to traffic hazards caused by weather events
• supporting the community to stay safe on our roads.

“With a wetter than average storm season upon us, the continuous rain is likely to over-saturate the road pavements which will result in an increased number of potholes and other hazards across the road network.
“I can assure residents our dedicated crews work hard to keep our roads open and safe throughout the year. We are out there in all conditions, including severe weather and make our repairs as soon as we can once it clears.
“Please report road problems online and don’t use our social media channels to report them.”
For urgent safety issues, call Council 24/7 on 02 6670 2400, with an on-call crew permanently on standby to address emergencies reported after hours.
To stay up to date with road hazards and closures, visit the Tweed Emergency dashboard at emergency.tweed.nsw.gov.au
For more information visit tweed.nsw.gov.au/roads.