Residents support funding application for Louth Road
Wednesday November 12, 2008
Leah Arnold hands over a petition to Cobar Shire Council general manager Ray Smith and deputy director of engineering Mathew Brodbeck on Monday.
More than 700 Louth and Cobar residents and other regular users of Louth Road have thrown their support behind a funding application to continue to seal the road.
A petition was presented to Cobar Shire Council on Monday containing 735 signatures which called for council to carry out three maintenance gradings per year of the road, and commit to sealing 5km per year of the road.
According to the petition, the signatories also support “lobbying for more finance”.
Cobar resident Leah Arnold, who is a regular user of the road, coordinated the petition.
“The support for Cobar Shire Council has been overwhelming,” Ms Arnold said in her cover letter of the petition.
On Monday she said residents appreciated the position council is in.
“It is important that people realise this is not a dig at council.
“There is only so much money to go around, and this is a way to try to get more funding,” Ms Arnold said.
Council’s deputy director of engineering Mathew Brodbeck said council has made a submission to the RTA for funding for the Louth Road.
“We will pass this petition onto the RTA to use it as ammunition with our funding application,” he said.
Mr Brodbeck explained that works which have been carried out on the gravel road are expensive, making it difficult to allocate funds towards sealing the road.
“The cost to seal the road with bitumen is around $40,000 per kilometre,” he said.
The road is 130km long, 50km of which is unsealed in the Cobar Shire.
Council’s general manager Ray Smith said the Louth Road is identified by council as one of three “main roads targeted” for sealing and additional government funding applications.
Ms Arnold said there have also been suggestions a traffic counter be placed on the road to get an accurate indication of its usage.
While the peak usage is for the Louth Races in August each year, Ms Arnold said in addition to residents there are also tourists, domestic and rural contractors and many others using the road year round.
“While is it important to provide a safe course of passage for people to attend community events such as the Louth Races, the condition of the road remains appalling for the remaining 11 months of the year,” Ms Arnold said.
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