NORTHERN Grampians Shire Council is disappointed it will be forced to pay $60,000 to prevent Roses Gap Road from being damaged by heavy rain in the future.
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The key tourist road remains closed after a downpour last week caused significant damage.
Mayor Murray Emerson said the State Government had provided $100,000 to repair the road, but the council would have to pay for future mitigation measures.
‘‘Unfortunately, the rules and regulations do not allow for any funding for upgrading, they only allow for replacement,’’ he said.
‘‘We understand there is some funding from the government for part of those repairs, but we are a bit disappointed it needs an upgraded culvert put in to take the volumes of water that flow through there sometimes.’’
Cr Emerson said the same road was damaged in 2011 because the underground culvert was not big enough to take large amounts of rain.
‘‘If we don’t replace the underground culvert with a bigger unit at cost to us, then next time we get heavy rain it will happen again,’’ he said.
‘‘When it has got to the underground pipe there has obviously been far too much water.
‘‘It got under the bitumen and washed parts of the bitumen and road away.’’
Cr Emerson said he expected the road to reopen within two or three weeks. ‘‘Crews will get started soon with some funding from the government,’’ he said.
‘‘We anticipate we will have to have a budget adjustment to find the other bit of money, although we don’t believe we should have to do that.’’
Cr Emerson said Roses Gap Road was vital to the shire’s economy.
‘‘It’s important for tourism,’’ he said.
‘‘Council believes if we don’t do something as soon as we can, it will affect our tourist dollar.
‘‘We have asked our roads and infrastructure person to get onto it as soon as possible.’’
Cr Emerson said council would lobby the government to change the rules.
‘‘We’ll be campaigning to see if we can get the guidelines changed so when these things happen the money doesn’t come out of the community’s purse,’’ he said.
‘‘The likelihood is that next time we get a large downpour we’ll be looking for another grant again.’’
Cr Emerson said the council would need to adjust the budget to pay for the preventive works.
