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Footage reveals extent of road damage from NSW March flood

Five Mile Road at Jenolan Caves
Five Mile
Five Mile Road at Jenolan Caves after it was hit by a combination of fires, floods, and landslides.
Image courtesy of Transport for NSW.

New before and after photos and footage have revealed the scale of repair work underway to fix the flood damaged roads in across parts of New South Wales affected by the late March floods when about 81,900 gigalitres of water fell on the state in a week.

Flooding reached record heights on the Hastings, Manning and Camden Haven rivers on the Mid North Coast, while the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment experienced its most significant flooding for more than 30 years.

New South Wales Deputy Premier and the minister responsible for disaster recovery John Barilaro said the vast majority of roads impacted by the March floods were now open to traffic.

“The Regional Flood Recovery Taskforce has successfully reopened 28 of the 30 roads impacted by floods and has commenced the longer-term goal of restoring all roads to their pre-flood standard,” Mr Barilaro said.

“The damage in some of these areas has been immense and while we’re confident crews will be able to restore access in most remaining areas in the next six weeks, restoring them to their pre-flood condition will be a much bigger task.”

Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole said crews were working tirelessly to re-open the two remaining roads and get all affected roads back to normal as soon as possible.

“We have 170 people working on the worst hit corridors – the Oxley Highway, Waterfall Way, Bells Line of Road and Jenolan Caves Road and the difference in just a few months is quite incredible,” Mr Toole said.

“We owe a great deal to the workers out there on the ground, most of whom are locals, restoring access for their own communities and the communities that have been very patient throughout the process.

“While most roads are now operational and we expect traffic to move relatively freely going forward, there remains a long and challenging task ahead of us to fully repair the damage on some roads in tricky terrain.”

As affected roads undergo repair, Oxley Highway will be operating single lane during the month of July, while the Jenolan Caves Road was reopened with restrictions in May.

Timeframes for Five Mile Road at Jenolan Caves will be significantly longer. Investigations are continuing to confirm final dates. Scale of damage to the road was more complex as it was hit by a combination of fires, floods, and landslides in the space of two months.

The 59-kilometre alternative crossing of the Blue Mountains to the Great Western Highway, Bells Line of Road, and the Waterfall Way running east-west from the Pacific Highway to the New England Highway are both reopened with restrictions.

 


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