A few people have asked me about the pink (purple?) and white lines and writing on sections of the road surface around the region.
The pink markings identify sections of the road pavement that were damaged as a result of the 2010/11 floods
The white marking identify sections that were damaged as a result of the January 2013 floods.
As you will see when you drive around the region, there are still quite a few sections identified by pink markings that have still not been repaired and this is primarily due to the arduous and drawn-out assessment, approval and tendering process that used to be in place under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA). This is the joint State & Federal arrangement which provides significant funding to repair damaged infrastructure which in turn saves ratepayers having to foot the entire bill. However, under the former arrangements, if Council wished to repair (for example) a section of roadway and improve it by widening it by a metre, it would have to fund the improvement (widening) itself as the funding only covered ‘like for like’ repairs.
Under the current and much improved NDRRA criteria, a lot of red tape has been removed and the whole process has been significantly streamlined so the repairs should take place a lot sooner than was previously the case.
In addittion, the State & Federal Governments have implemented programs which allow for some ‘betterments’ (improvements) and also some ‘resilience’ (upgrading) to damaged infrastructure subject to strict criteria. As a result, (again, for example), a section of road that continually gets washed out during a flooding event could receive additional funding for improved drainage to be installed to prevent it from repeatedly happening again.
The new State Government has been extremely proactive in bringing about these changes and is seeking to lever further funds from the Federal Government so that more areas can be protected in the future. I don’t get involved in party politics but credit where credit’s due and it needs to be recognised that Member for Burnett, Steve Bennett and Minister David Crisafulli have been leading a very successful charge in this regard.
If you’re one of the many people who are frustrated about the length of time involved in getting flood damaged roads repaired, please bear the above information in mind and appreciate that there’s also a limit to the number of qualified staff, equipment and available contractors which are available to get to the jobs.