Positive feedback in early days of new roads contract

A new road maintenance contract which almost doubled the expenditure on road maintenance works across the shire appears to be working well, according to councillors.

An update on the new $8.1 million contract was recently presented to council.

But the general feedback from councillors was less complaints from residents and the new contract was “so far so good.”

The new five year contract with DM Roads began on July 1, and has a potential for two three year extensions.

Mayor Danny Goss said the new roads contract was one of the biggest initiatives of the last council.

“We absolutely had to get it right. At the earliest opportunity, council upgraded the contract and we have ended up with an excellent tenderer and contract,” he said.

Cr Goss said the community has expectations and “simply doubling the expenditure wasn’t going to cut it.”

He said the new contract appeared to be working well, but it wasn’t perfect yet.

“So far so good. We are trying but we have a long way to go,” he said.

A report to council said the new contract would deliver:

More inspections with a greater frequency in high priority areas;

Reactive activities including repairs to both sealed and unsealed roads, drainage, fallen trees, signs, after hours and emergency response;

Response times for repairs to various defects such as potholes are significantly shorter than previous contracts;

Programmed activities include road grading, shoulder grading, open drain cleaning, sealed road surface repairs, tree trimming, and roadside grass mowing.

Annual road grading has increased to 754km, unsealed shoulder clearing increased to 320km per year and open drain cleaning increased to 340km per year.

The contract also includes two roadside mowing cuts each year between September and December and January to April.

Since taking over the contract, DM Roads has undertaken a complete inspection of council’s road network.

DM Roads has a target to respond to all customer requests within five days, with a total of 964 requests received in the first quarter of the financial year.

Almost one third of the requests were for unsealed roads (267), closely followed by sealed roads (254).

DM Roads completed 2332 defect responses, with 1146 relating to potholes during the July to September period.

The company began the contract with two full time grader to undertake unsealed road grading.

Cr Michael Leaney said roads were very important to many people in the shire and was often the only interaction they had with the shire.

He said the new contract this year resulted in council increasing its annual road maintenance expenditure from $4.5 million to $8.1 million.

“We recognised the previous contract just wasn’t delivering what the community expected. It changed from a reactive to proactive contract.

“There is still a lot of work to do and they are working through a backlog,” he said.

Cr Peter Kostos said the benefits of the new contract would evolve. “It will take six to 12 months for people to notice.

“The steps that have been taken are there for the benefit of the ratepayers,” he said.

Cr Tricia Jones said annual customer surveys consistently expressed dissatisfaction with roads.

“We have dramatically increased the spend not only on road improvements and maintenance but also with other activities.

“The community has already commented on improved services,” she said.

Cr Darren Wallace said there were lots of areas, particularly in the east ward where the only service council provided was the road at the front “so it’s important we get that right.”

He said he was not hearing as many complaints about roads.