Road Repair Works for Elliott Way

Published on 11 March 2021

A program of heavy patching on Elliott Way is scheduled to commence in the coming weeks.

Snowy Valleys Council will spend $440,000 on a program of heavy patching focused on the first 9km of Council managed Elliott Way - from the Tooma Road intersection. 

Chief Executive Officer Matthew Hyde said the section of road had been heavily impacted by softwood trucks transporting black logs following the bushfires last year.

“Council has received funding support to allow us to repair sections of the road that have seen accelerated deterioration due to heavy vehicles and wet weather damage,” he said.

Shoulder grading and drain cleaning works have already been done in preparation for the heavy patching works to begin shortly.

Snowy Valleys Council manages the first 21.125 km of Elliott Way, from the Tooma Road intersection to the State Forest border with funding assistance provided through the State Government’s Regional Road Block Grant Funding.

National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) manages the road from the State Forest boarder onwards through Cabramurra.

Mr Hyde said ownership of roads can often be confusing for locals and is not always straightforward.

“Council received many complaints from locals about the section of Elliott Way from the State Forest border remaining closed, but what they may not understand is that the closed section is not managed by us and therefore our role is one of advocacy,” he said.

“We know how important it is for the Tumbarumba community that the whole length of the road be accessible again and to that end we have been continuously advocating at every opportunity possible for the state forest road to be reopened”.

Mr Hyde said Council enjoyed a great partnership with NPWS around Elliott Way and that Councillors and Council staff had met or spoken with representatives from the NPWS as regularly as weekly since February 2020 seeking updates and advocating for the forestry section to be reopened as soon as practical.

“I am encouraged to see that in the last two weeks NPWS have finally provided an update to the local community on their plans to reopen their section; we understand it’s been quite a difficult assessment for them because of the land slips and weather issues associated with undertaking Geotechnical studies,” Mr Hyde said.

Directly following the black summer bushfires Council undertook critical clean up works on their section of Elliott Way to make safe for local resident access and the softwoods industry.

“Council has ensured that the section of roadway we are responsible for has remained open and our section will continue to remain open for the use of residents, producers and industry,” said Mr Hyde.

Snowy Valleys Council received; $130,000 through the State Government’s Regional Road Block Grant Funding; $120,000 from the Bushfire Disaster Fund and $95,000 from Transport for NSW’s Regional Road Repair program towards the 9km of heavy patching repairs, with Council funding the final $95,000 from its general fund.

Mr Hyde says Council also continues to seek $16million in funding as an Advocacy priority for a complete upgrade to the Council managed section of Elliott Way to cater for future industry requirements including Transgrid and Snowy2.0.

The Elliott Way heavy patching work is scheduled to start in late March 2021.

-ENDS-