Wollondilly Shire Council has welcomed today's announcement of $9.5M road repair funding from the State Government's Regional and Local Roads Repair Program to help address the flood damage across Wollondilly's 870km road network.
Member for Wollondilly Nathaniel Smith MP made the significant funding announcement at the Council Chambers in Picton this morning.
While Wollondilly was excluded from the first round of pothole repair funding, Mayor Matt Gould alongside other Mayors from the fringes of Greater Sydney have successfully advocated for additional support to help with the backlog of storm damage.
Mayor Gould said, "In response to a series of extreme weather events and the wettest year on record for our Shire in 2022, we have been working extremely hard to get on top of approximately $140m of significant damage that was done to our roads."
"Whilst unfortunately we still have a long way to go to fully repair all the damage, it is great to see that an additional $9.5M will be added to our road repair budget on top of the record amount of funding we have already committed to assist us with the massive task of getting our roads fixed."
"These funds will be directed to targeted reconstruction/heavy patching and repair works all over our wonderful Shire, from Bargo to Warragamba, Buxton to Menangle, Appin to Oakdale, Tahmoor to Douglas Park. Every corner of the Shire will see substantial works on the ground in the next phase of our massive road repair program."
"I say to everyone - if you see a pothole please make sure you report it using our online Customer Portal or by calling Council so we can get out there and get it looked at as soon as possible."
"I have worked closely with other councils as well as Member for Wollondilly Nathaniel Smith MP to make sure the NSW Government is aware of the critical road issues that we are facing in the Shire."
"Nathaniel and I met with several key ministers late last year to push for additional support for Wollondilly, so it's great to see that Council's strong advocacy on this issue was listened to and we are now getting some much-needed help."
"I will also be continuing to advocate for some of our regional roads to be reclassified as State roads so that we can focus on getting our local roads fixed for our local residents," he said.
