Wagga council hopes to kick off a campaign of emergency road repairs before Christmas as they join other local governments in declaring a statewide road emergency.
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Councillors responded to a comprehensive report into the state of Wagga roads at Monday night's meeting by agreeing to call for an Expressions of Interest from contractors to undertake emergency road repairs.
And with the state government soon to announce which cities will get cash from the recently announced $50 million emergency pothole fund, repairs could soon be underway.
Council director of infrastructure services Warren Faulkner said the state government should announce the funds in early December.
"We're hoping next month that the state government announces their pothole funding for us so that we can get that kicked off before Christmas as well," said Mr Faulkner.
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"We have already started that process with an application for the pothole repair money.
"We have a local government procurement panel contract in place where we do have a couple of local contractors that we can engage ... for when the funding gets announced of what we've got for pothole repairs to kick that off before Christmas, if we can."
Mr Faulkner said the $50 million will be divided up based on the lengths of roads in each LGA and with Wagga boasting around 2300 kms, he expects approximately $500,000, to $750,000 in new funds.
The report into the state of Wagga roads outlined a huge shortfall in roads funding of $9 million annually, with the current infrastructure backlog sitting at $92 million.
Council agreed to hold a series of workshops to develop new ways of increasing funding for roads maintenance and renewal as well as address the backlog of works.
But Mr Faulkner said any increase in funds won't appear until next year.
"The budget process is kicking off into January, February. And so by March, April, the Council adopts its first budget and puts it out on public exhibition," he said.
"I think realistically, we're looking at a six to 12 month time frame."
One option for increased roads funding identified in the report, authored by Mr Faulkner, would be a special rate variation.
Mayor Dallas Tout announced at the meeting that Wagga would join Local Government NSW and Country Mayors Association of NSW in declaring a Statewide Road Emergency.
They will call for, among others, "an acceleration and significant increase in funding" for the $1.1 billion Fixing Local Roads and Fixing Country Bridges program from the state government.
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