FLOODING and storm damage between September and December last year has impacted much of the 1821 kilometres of road throughout the Bogan Shire, creating a logistical challenge for Council to repair and ultimately improve its traffic network.

Bogan Shire Director of Engineering, Graeme Bourke said the first priority had been to assess roads and make them trafficable, and then to return to carry out substantial repairs and improvements.

Mr Bourke said Council spent $1.226 million from early September through to mid-December on emergency flood and storm damage repairs to roads and was now in the process of applying NSW Government grant funding to re-coup costs and carry out further work.

Prior to the recent floods Bogan Shire had around $6 million in designated flood repair grant funding from previous weather events dating back to 2016 and was in the process of carrying out an extensive work schedule.

The recent floods resulted in some roads being inundated for up to nine weeks, and significant damage to both sealed and unsealed roads right across the region.

In December Bogan Shire received $550,000 from the first round of the NSW Government Pothole Repair Fund and following an announcement NSW Minister for Roads Sam Farraway last week was potentially due to receive an extra allocation.

Council has also applied for flood damage funding through Transport of NSW and for Infrastructure Betterment funding, which focuses on re-building damaged and destroyed infrastructure in a more resilient way.

Mr Bourke said there was currently seven road crews working around the Shire on both sealed and unsealed roads.

“We have the majority of roads open with a few still limited to light vehicles only. Some roads are still too wet to work on but we have been, and will continue to, carry out patch grading on unsealed roads to restore as many as possible, as quickly as possible, to a trafficable condition.”

This week Council crews are working on Cockies Road, Buddabadah Road, Bourkes Road, and Merryanbone Road, with contract crews on the Cobar - Condobolin Road and Bobadah Road.

A key challenge for all Councils during the recent flood event was keeping road users up to date with road conditions including road closures.

Mr Bourke said Bogan Shire had recently entered into an agreement with Transport for NSW to enter local road closures into the new OneRoad system, which allows local road information to viewed on the Live Traffic App as well as other third-party traffic route apps.

“This allows Council to identify locations of roadworks, hazards, or unsealed road closures due to rain, and advise travellers using these apps to avoid the area,” he said.