Damage assessment close to completion
Council is close to completing a full damage assessment of the local road and bridge network as part of the Scenic Rim's disaster recovery and infrastructure restoration process.
"In the immediate aftermath of ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie we completed a rapid damage assessment with a focus on directing Council resources to restoring community connectivity during the emergent works period," Mayor Greg Christensen said.
"This included clearing almost 40 land slips and building temporary sidetracks around damaged bridges to help get our region moving again.
"However, these priority works were just the tip of the iceberg and we are now moving into a long-term program of infrastructure restoration under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, co-funded by the State and Federal governments."
Cr Christensen said a full damage assessment of the road and bridge network had been undertaken by Council staff and engineering contractors over the past several weeks.
"This assessment has required a visual inspection of every local road and bridge within Scenic Rim, which equates to about 1800 kilometres of sealed and unseal road and 129 bridges, to document all damage and deterioration as a result of the storms and flooding," he said.
"We expect to have completed this assessment process by the end of July, but what we know at the moment is that 50 of our bridges have sustained damage and 530 of our local roads have been impacted.
"Council is in the fortunate position that it had only just completed a full video assessment of the road network prior to ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie as part of its asset management program.
"As a result, we have a wealth of recent comparative data to illustrate the pre-disaster and post-disaster condition of roads, which will assist will the validation and processing of future claims under NDRRA.
"We expect the timeframe for the completion of these works will be upwards of
18 months, so I do ask for the patience and understanding of the community."