Indigo Informer - Indigo Shire Council

Capital works update
Maintaining Indigo's road network
Indigo Shire’s annual budget for road
maintenance is approximately $1.8 million,
which includes urban and rural roads,
footpaths, bridges, kerb and channels,
signage, rail trails and line marking on roads.
This budget is used to maintain 926
kilometres of gravel roads and 441
kilometres of sealed roads – excluding major
roads maintained by VicRoads.
Around 20 Shire staff maintain the roads
and three graders are full time on this task.
The resealing of the Shire’s bitumen roads
costs $560,000 annually and re-sheeting
gravel roads is $430,000 annually. The gravel
used to re-sheet roads is partly supplied
from Indigo Shire’s Horseshoe Quarry.
The Shire is divided into 16 zones and
grader drivers make their way across the
Shire working within these areas. It takes
eight weeks for the graders to cover one half
of the Shire and roads are maintained
depending on the level of traffic on them,
the location and current standard, and
future development of the road.
Prior to summer, fire access roads are
inspected and during high fire danger
periods the graders don’t go out. Grading
slows down in summer because it gets too
dusty and isn’t done when rain is on the way
because of the muddy conditions that will
only undo all the good work.
If you would like your road graded call
Indigo Shire on 1300 365 003 or
02 6028 1100 and the request will be
lodged. Someone from the road crew will
assess the road and decide if it can wait until
the routine grader comes through, or it
needs to be done before that.
Some of the projects underway
Although record rainfalls earlier in the year has hampered the
2011-12 capital works program, work continues in a number of
areas. Projects underway include:
Harkins Road Bridge
Harkins Road Bridge, near Barnawartha, is being replaced with a
new concrete bridge. The old bridge had reached the end of its
life and the new bridge is designed to current Australian
Standards to carry all standard heavy vehicle loads. This new
bridge is constructed to last 100 years with minimal costs for
maintenance. The works are expected to be finished in April. The
total project cost is expected to be $158,000.
Public Toilet Wahgunyah
The new public toilet, at the Willows Recreation Reserve, is
nearing completion. It will allow for disabled access and includes
baby change facilities. The total cost of the project is expected to
be $60,000. The works are expected to be completed during
April.
Beechworth Stormwater Drainage
Works are continuing on Beechworth drainage improvements in
priority locations. Camp Street road shoulders have been sealed
and open channel drainage works carried out to reduce scouring
and silting of drains and to increase the capacity of the system.
The eight poplar trees in Camp Street will remain.
The total cost of the stormwater drainage work across
Beechworth is expected to meet the capital budget allocation of
$299,000. Underground works are also due to start in Hodge
Street to Lower Stanley Road in April at a cost of $40,000.
Chiltern Flood Mitigation
The Northern flowpath channel works are continuing at Kilgour
Street after the rain and flash flooding that occurred in March.
The bulk of the earthworks in the channel and levee bank is now
complete with the Kilgour Street large culvert also now in place.
Concrete retaining walls are still to be installed along the rear of
the property fences to provide protection. The project is designed
to contain 1 in 100 year rain events to the channel. The total cost
of the project for this financial year is expected to be $545,000.
The completion date is 30 April 2012.
April - May 2012 – Indigo Informer 3