NSW floods: Roads ravaged by floods and councils left without funds to fix them

Extreme weather has torn through roads across the state leaving them damaged and in some cases missing entirely.

On Friday, the state government said it would "fast track" $15m in emergency funding for eight councils in central and western NSW for urgent road repairs.

The councils are: Cabonne, Cowra, Forbes, Lachlan, Moree Plains, Narrabri, Parkes and Walgett.

While this helps some councils, many are struggling with huge repair bills, including Dubbo council's $40m backlog of repairs.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council says it will cost about $51.6 million to remediate 86 landslips across the local government area, with some sites yet to be scoped and costed.

Cessnock City Council has repaired at least 54,000 potholes since July, but millions of dollars worth of recovery works lay ahead.

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Shoalhaven City Council faces an $80 million damage bill from extreme weather. Goulburn Mulwaree Council is wading through a long list of rain-damaged roads, using state Disaster Funding.

Wagga MP Joe McGirr said potholes "represent a clear and present danger to motorists".

"Over 9400 potholes have been reported on state roads across the Riverina since the first wave of severe weather that hit NSW in February," a Transport for NSW spokesperson said. Of which, 8980 have been fixed.

Bathurst Regional Council admits it's "months away from catching up with the number of potholes and road failures as a result of the extended period of wet weather".

Without additional funding, Local Government NSW president Darriea Turley said the economic and social harm caused by this emergency would get worse.

"More than 220 natural disaster areas have been declared across NSW this year, leaving the road network in a state of disrepair," she said.

"Road repair funding pledged to date has fallen well short of what is required. So, we're declaring this a 'statewide roads emergency' to get help before the situation becomes even worse.

"In the coming weeks, close to $4 billion worth of crops will need to be harvested and transported, yet harvesting machinery is unable to access some of the most productive regions in our state."

As part of the statewide roads emergency, LGNSW is calling for:

Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway declined to advise how much the NSW Government had spent on repairing roads damaged by extreme weather this year.

He did, however, confirm the repair bill for damage from the February/March floods was $150 million.

In late October, $50m was announced to help regional and rural councils fix potholes. Of the 95 eligible councils and authorities for the Fixing Local Roads Pothole Repair Round, 94 applied.

Far West Incorporated did not apply for funds. Successful recipients are yet to be announced.

Cessnock mayor Jay Suvaal slammed the NSW Government's kitty to fix roads as a "literal drop in the pothole". He said it wouldn't fix potholes during ordinary times, let alone following the natural disasters.

Mr Farraway said disaster funding should allow councils to build road and transport infrastructure back to better withstand extreme weather events, rather than on a like-for-like basis.

"Earlier this year I announced a road infrastructure betterment package with the commonwealth, the first disaster funding package of its kind, for councils in northern NSW impacted by the March floods," he said.

"Betterment funding is the way of the future. In fact international studies have shown that for every $1 spent on mitigation you save $10 on recovery."

Mr Farraway said he will lobby the federal government to make this approach to disaster recovery funding permanent, and available for all regional councils impacted by natural disasters this year.

Following the February/March floods, 2111 kilometres of state roads were damaged, with all damage repaired prior to subsequent and recent rain events.

Within regional NSW, Transport for NSW repaired more than 90,000 potholes since July 1. This compares with 57,296 that were repaired in the same period last year.

Ahead of the state election on March 25, 2023, Shadow Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Jenny Aitchison said the NSW Government's assistance hasn't gone far enough or come quick enough.

"We have had a government who promised back in 2019, to reclassify and transfer up to 15,000kms of roads, that was to take the burden of councils. Yet we're here, five months out from the next state election, and they have not transferred one single kilometre of regional road back to the state," she said.

"If it goes to a regional road there's more funding for the council that's managing it.

"There's just so much cost shifting from state government to local government, and local governments get caught carrying the burden."

Ms Aitchison said damaged transport routes are having a financial impact on motorists and vehicles are being left with significant damage due to slow roads repairs.

"They're a social determinant of health, of education, of opportunity and jobs," she said.