Tweed Shire Council, New South Wales, is on track to complete all road flood-damage repairs by the end of the year.
One year on from the record flood of March 2017, Council is nearing the halfway mark in road, bridge and stormwater asset repairs, which accounted for $28.9 million out of the total $49 million damages bill left in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Debbie.
To date, Council has repaired more than 1200 road damage items out of a total of 1550 at a cost of $8 million and has contracts signed for a further $5.5 million in repairs, bringing it to the halfway mark in roads recovery spend.
Two of the five minor road works packages have been completed, with the remainder expected to be finished by the end of July, accounting for 1460 damage items.
Three major road repair packages have been let, with Tweed Valley Way at Blacks Drain completed.
In September 2017, Council secured a grant for half the funds needed to replace Byrrill Creek Bridge with a flood-proof, two-lane concrete bridge at a cost of $4.35 million by the end of June next year.
Another seven grants have been allocated to better understand flooding and improve flood-resilience in the Shire through additional river and stream gauges, a flood study of South Murwillumbah and new voluntary house purchase and house raising schemes.
All damaged plant and materials have been replaced; 90 percent of sports fields and 77 percent of waterway infrastructure and riparian zone repairs have been completed.
Operational building assets have been repaired and work is continuing on other damaged community buildings.
While water and sewerage services were restored to normal within weeks of the flood, further repairs and improvements worth some $3.5 million are yet to be delivered.
The repair of flood assets, such as levees, has been contracted out to Public Works Advisory and is well under way.
