Staff who have spent their careers working for Local Government have embraced new technology to create an innovative road and footpath inspection program in Melbourne’s City of Yarra. Yarra Road Services Business Leader, David McKinnon, remembers a time not too long ago when road inspections were an ad hoc, time consuming chore, and records were unreliable. Now he heads up an in house business unit with an annual budget of $2 million, which was created when the former Cities of Fitzroy, Collingwood and Richmond amalgamated to form the City of Yarra in the mid 1990s.
Program Coordinator, Peter McCauley, inspects Yarra’s 800 local streets each year and covers main roads every quarter. On average, Peter logs some 30 items per street, of which 10 need Council action. He responds to call outs from residents reporting roads in need of urgent repair and takes pride in his 20 minute rapid response time.
Meanwhile, Infrastructure Risk Management Officer, Joe Cunningham, covers 16,000 square kilometres of pathways on foot, recording every fault he finds on a scale of 0 to 5 using a palm computer. The categories range from ‘urgent works’ needing repair within two days to ‘no works required’. He covers 21 precincts, logging an average of 1,200 reports in each one.
Working as a team, David, Peter and Joe have created a highly detailed and accurate record of Council’s entire road and footpath network. This is no mean feat, considering the City of Yarra carries the bulk of Melbourne’s peak hour traffic and is intersected by several major arterial roads.
Yarra Road Services is in a strong position to defend public liability cases which may arise from damaged roads or footpaths, following a High Court ruling that Councils are responsible for identifying and repairing foreseeable risks. In the City of Yarra, a seamless approach to making the road reserve safer has reduced the personal trauma associated with incidents and injuries as well as the potential cost of public liability suits.
For further information contact David McKinnon, email mckinnod@yarra city.vic.gov.au or telephone (03) 9205 5547.
