Commonwealth, state and territory governments must develop a sustainable funding model for maintaining local road networks with upfront investment to ensure roads are more resilient to severe weather, according to ALGA.
This was a key recommendation outlined by ALGA to a parliamentary committee on 30 March, as part of a submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport on the implications of severe weather on the national regional, rural, and remote road network.
Appearing before the committee, ALGA President Linda Scott said the Commonwealth should also consider creating resilient alternative routes to major corridors that are susceptible to flooding or severe rainfall events.
There were 46 disasters declared in 2022, with 524 disaster support declarations over 316 local government areas in Australia, according to the National Emergency Management Agency.
ALGA made a total of seven recommendations to the inquiry, including:
- Commonwealth and state and territory jurisdictions should collaborate on the development of a sustainable road funding model for properly maintaining the local road network through better upfront investment so that it is more resilient to the effects of severe weather.
- Consideration be given by the Commonwealth to creating resilient alternative routes to major corridors that are susceptible to flooding or severe rainfall events.
- Where climate resilient corridors align with council managed roads, a program should be established to provide councils with the contracts for future road construction projects using similar direct funding mechanisms as successfully employed through programs such as the LCRIP which uses the Roads to Recovery funding mechanism to distribute funds directly to councils without the need for an unnecessary and time-consuming grant applications process.
- The Commonwealth works with the road construction industry to take a leadership role in driving the widespread adoption of the latest pavement materials across the country.
- Councils should be supported in trialling new road construction methods and stand ready to be utilized by the Commonwealth to pilot new road construction methods and materials where possible.
- The Commonwealth adopts a strong leadership role in efforts to improve disaster mitigation efforts, including supporting local governments through greater upfront investment in building more resilient infrastructure to minimise the much more substantial costs of replacing infrastructure destroyed by severe weather events.
- The inquiry supports ALGA’s Pre-Budget Submission Road funding proposals as this funding will support our local communities to be much better positioned to withstand the effects of severe weather events in the future.
Read the submission: https://alga.com.au/app/uploads/Submission-Inquiry-into-the-implications-of-severe-weather-events-on-road-network.pdf