Peninsula Chamber of Commerce has stepped up its efforts to secure a permanent fix for pot-hole ridden Rabaul Ave at Umina Beach.
“We used to drive on the left hand side of the road – now we drive on what’s left of the road,” Chamber President Matthew Wales said.
Wales said while the Chamber appreciated advice from Central Coast Council that funds had been allocated for the resurfacing of Rabaul Ave from the Federal Government’s $40M roads package, this solution was “simply replacing same for same”.
“The existing pavement has reached the end of its sustainable life and is simply being replaced,” Wales said.
“This is not a long-term upgrade or long-term solution.
“The ‘rehabilitation’ does not solve the fundamental lack of adequate street drainage (which contributes to the pavement failure and hence the current maintenance problem), absence of kerb and gutter (which protects road verges and collects runoff) and absence of footpaths (which causes school kids, mums with prams and pedestrians to walk on the road and create a safety risk).”
Wales said Council’s most recent reply to his latest plea for a long-term fix was “the standard response that the Peninsula Chamber has received for years”.
“(This is) symptomatic of the lack of capital works funds in Central Coast Council,” he said.
“What frustrates the Chamber is the fact that we cannot even convince Council to consider the Rabaul Ave project for its Forward Plan of Works.
“At the very least, it should be listed for consideration.
“If it’s not listed and remains uncosted, it will never receive consideration for state or federal funding.”
Wales said 80 per cent of the Peninsula’s roads had no kerb and gutter, no street drainage, no footpaths and crumbling pavements.
“Yet we sustain a population of 36,000 residents one hour from Sydney,” he said.
Wales said he had enlisted the support of Member for Robertson Gordon Reid, who said he was pushing hard to have Council review the Chamber’s request and have the project costed out.
“Like all funding requests to State and Federal governments, there needs to be a scope of works and preliminary estimates otherwise you never know the true cost of works,” Wales said.
“We can’t even get Council to do this because they don’t want to take on new infrastructure projects.
“(The whole) focus is repair and maintenance of roads only.”
Source:
Media release, Mar 20
Peninsula Chamber of Commerce