Shoddy

By Dion Teasdale
EAST Warburton residents have accused the Shire of Yarra Ranges of botching road repair works along Big Pats Creek Road.
The residents have labelled spray sealing works completed by shire contractors in March this year as cheap, shoddy, and dangerous.
They say they were expecting the shire to address ongoing safety concerns about the width of the road and the poor condition of the road’s shoulders.
Instead, they say the spray sealing works have left the road with ragged bitumen edges and that the shire has failed to repair the large number of pot holes along the road.
Big Pats Creek Road resident Ron Howard said locals had been very disappointed by the repair work.
“The shire contractors came up here and started the job, but the job has only been half done,” he said.
“It is a shockingly poor job. The shoulders of the road are all broken.”
Mr Howard said the road was a main thoroughfare for local residents, was used as a school bus route, and received a high volume of tourist and recreation traffic.
“To leave such a busy road in this sort of condition is really bad,” he said.
“Poor maintenance of the road creates real driver hazards and it may only be a matter of time before someone is injured or killed,” he said.
Barb Yeoman, another resident of the Big Pats Creek Road, described the repair works as “bloody disgusting”.
“I’ve never seen such a shoddy job. The shire urgently needs to come back and fix the shoulders,” she said.
“It is ridiculous to even think of leaving the road like this.”
Mrs Yeoman said the condition of the road made her wonder whether the shire had run out of money to complete the project.
“The job that’s been done is laughable. To come and just do the resealing and not fix the shoulders makes it look like they’ve run out of cash.”
She said the 80kmh speed limit along the road needed to be reduced, and that the road needed widening and white lines painted on it.
“The road is so narrow that people have to swerve off to the side to get around oncoming traffic. When you do swerve off you hit pot holes and rough edges,” she said.
However, the shire’s manager of community relations James Martin defended the repair works completed along the road earlier this year.
He said residents were advised that the works undertaken were part of a resurfacing program where an asphalt seal is sprayed on to the existing surface.
He said he was surprised to hear that residents were expecting the works to include the widening of the road.
“A letter would have been sent out to residents advising them of the type of work to be undertaken,” he said.
Mr Martin said a shire officer inspected the road last week to see if there were any defects in the work that was undertaken in March.
“The road has been inspected and the resurfacing work is all OK. There were no defects detected,” he said.
Mr Martin denied the shire had run out of funding for upgrades.
“If residents have concerns about the speed limit or the volume of traffic, or would like to see the edges of the road sealed, they could put in a formal request to the shire,” he said.
He said the shoulders of the road had been tentatively programmed for grading work in the next four to six weeks.