Council has started the implementation of the second year of the current three- year road sealing program to address the current backlog of failing infrastructure, and for mitigating further deterioration of Council roads network. This program is based on assessments of all roads for condition, current use and expected service life based on current road surface condition.
Based on these assessments, roads are prioritized for both the time new treatment is to be applied, as well as the type of treatment to be applied.
Council needs to do this to provide the maximum protection and service life for all roads for the benefit of the whole community, within the limited rates revenue budget of Council.
As such, roads which are clearly in a condition where the existing seal is in such a state as to cause further degradation of the road base and significantly reduce the service life of the road, an asphalt treatment is applied, which includes stripping the existing seal and providing a new asphalt seal to ensure a long service life is provided.
Last year Council treated 25 roads with asphalt based on condition assessments and allocated priorities.
The roads nominated for this coming year fall into this category.
In those instances where the existing road surface is determined to be reasonably sound, and generally requires waterproofing to protect the road base from further deterioration, a sprayseal treatment is applied to ensure the road life is increased and water penetration to the road base is prevented.
Last year Council treated 75 roads with sprayseal.
It is also fair to note that the cost of treatment with sprayseal to the community, is approximately 6 times less expensive than providing asphalt treatment.
This is also taken into account to ensure that in these times of high levels of roads requiring attention, and Council’s current budget constraints, that the integrity of as many roads as possible is improved or retained for the benefit of the whole community in the most cost effective manner.
Once treatments have been applied, there are ongoing assessments of treatment suitability.
Some treatments fail for a variety of reasons from application method at the time, weather conditions and suitability, road temperature, binder type etc. It is important that Council performs ongoing assessments and evaluations for road conditions and treatment effectiveness.
Council is developing a ten-year roads program to ensure road assets provide the service levels to relevant standards and to community service levels.
This program will take effect after the completion of the current backlog works ending in 2022, and will provide an ongoing maintenance focus to ensure service standards for Councils transport network is maintained.
Note that there is an element of flexibility in the programming of roads to be treated based on changing conditions year to year. This could be due to weather events affecting the road integrity, increased traffic volumes or other circumstances.
Council welcomes any community comments and views in relation to these proposed future works. Enquiries on roadworks can be made to Council on 8640 3444 or via our customer request form https://www.whyalla.sa.gov.au/council/contact-us.