Noosa Council has until 29 June to engage contractors to complete about $4 million in disaster reconstruction work on 70 roads, stormwater and waterway crossings, that were damaged during the Cyclone Alfred weather event on 29 March or risk losing state government funding to undertake it.
Council lacks the capacity or capability to complete the essential work, Council’s Disaster Reconstruction coordinator told councillors at a Special Meeting held on 21 May.
At the meeting councillors gave the go-ahead for the chief executive officer to negotiate, finalise and execute external contracts for the emergency works for asphalt and gravel roads, immediate reconstruction works for damaged roads including stormwater crossings and for project and supervision resources.
Staff told the meeting the damage, sustained mostly to gravel and asphalt roads, was significant enough to engage the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) and be granted the funding for the emergency repairs.
“The roads are not in a great state. We want to keep the community safe by improving that,“ the coordinator told the meeting.
Under Disaster Reconstruction Funding Arrangements the work must be completed within 90 days of the disaster event to be eligible to funding. If it’s outside the required time the cost comes back to council budget.
Staff said without council resources available to do the work the team had been progressing a “2025 Disaster Reconstruction Program“ to outsource the work.
When asked if there was time to complete the work the coordinator said: “the 90 days started ticking from the event and we’ve been using this time to come up with a plan, given we didn’t have council resources.
“That was an initial barrier. We have until 29 June. It’s a really big challenge. We’re talking to several contractors about how we might be able to do this, and engage with council crew who are available to see how we go about doing this.
“Based on damage assessments and how many kilometres a day they can do gravel roads, we believe we can do this work.“
Mayor Frank Wilkie said the damage bill from the Western Queensland Surface Trough and associated rainfall and flooding event in the weeks following Tropical Cyclone Alfred was substantial.
He said the scope of works includes pothole and scouring repairs to the shire’s asphalt road network, gravel road grading, debris removal, including drain and creek crossing clearing, and culvert reconstruction. The work includes key hinterland roads such as Cooroy Mountain Road, Upper Pinbarren Creek Road and various tracks on the Noosa North Shore.
“We’re looking at an estimated $4 million repair bill in immediate repairs with the bulk of that – over $2.7 million – to be spent on road repairs,” he said.
“The team is also simultaneously assessing more significant damage that requires detailed design and repairs – these will be separately reported to Council, with the next steps and program for more enduring repairs.“
Staff anticipate these works will be outsourced to suppliers on existing Local Buy arrangements where available, or other local or state government arrangements where possible.
