Action needed now to address fragile Illawarra roads

This was despite a week of heavy rain and resulting landslides nearly cutting the Illawarra off, with major arterial roads such as Bulli Pass and Macquarie Pass still closed.

In the wake of last Thursday's floods, RDA Illawarra CEO Debra Murphy is calling on local, state and federal governments to put words into action on road improvements.

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"A lot of good work is being done on planning and not enough in terms of action," she said.

Local motorists have had to dodge potholes and turn back from flooded roads, with the immediate clean up falling to Wollongong City Council, including more than 220 potholes, according to a council spokesperson.

"Over the weekend we had council staff across the city undertaking urgent clean-up works and assessing infrastructure including our roads," the spokesperson said.

"We will continue to carry out pothole repairs, as weather permits."

In the 2021-22 budget, Wollongong council forecasts expenditure on roads to fall from $18.5 million in the current financial year to $15.6 million in the 2022-23 financial year and $14.2 million in the next.

"As we assess damage to Council's roads and infrastructure, we will prioritise repairs by considering frequency of use, level of damage and complexity of repairs required and availability of Council staff or specialist contractors to complete the works," the council spokesperson said.

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Council said it was grateful for the support from state and federal governments and will seek to access grant programs to lessen the impact on local finances.

"We are presently assessing the damage to Council's infrastructure, and it is too early to speculate what the total cost to Council might be."

Road upgrades in the key election seat of Gilmore announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday would be delivered by Shoalhaven City Council.

The funding for the local roads continues a trend of the federal government spending more on local transport projects, identified by think-tank the Grattan Institute.

Federal government spending on small transport projects, worth less than $10 million, increased ten fold under the current federal Coalition government when compared to the previous Labor government.

"Increased spending on local projects has occurred in the context of modest increases in federal spending on transport infrastructure - so a bigger share is being directed to small projects," said Ingrid Burfurd, senior associate in the Grattan Institute's Transport Cities and Program.

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According to the Grattan Institute, small projects are the proper and agreed remit of the state or local government, rather than the federal government, which typically funds larger transport projects.

"The federal government's job is nationally significant infrastructure," Ms Burfurd said. "Spending on small local projects should stop."

While none of the roads funded in Mr Morrison's most recent announcement are identified as a priority project by Infrastructure Australia, upgrades to Picton Road are a priority, according to the independent body, as are upgrades to the Wollongong-Sydney rail line.

"In an ideal world, funding for large projects would be based on independent advice from Infrastructure Australia [and] funding for smaller projects would be based on publicly-available criteria and objectives," Ms Burfurd said.

In the 2022 federal budget, upgrades to Picton Road received $100 million, however the project remains in the planning stage.

"It's time now to take some action rather than plan," said Ms Murphy.

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