Road building season begins with night work

October 6, 2017

This year’s road building season in Orange has begun.

It began with night work on a busy industrial section of Lords Place, from Gardiner Road to the railway line, in a bid to reduce the impact on local businesses. .

The rehabilitation involves a 480 metre section of the surface being ripped up to a depth of about 200 mm, then stabilised with a road pulveriser and concrete additives.

The road will then be compacted and finished with a 50 mm hot mix seal.

IT BEGINS : Council members Jo McRae, Mayor Kidd and Tony Mileto visited the site of the Lords Place project, to outline plans to reporters at the start of the road-building season.

Orange Mayor Reg Kidd said this year’s $17 million road building budget was on top of last year’s mammoth road building achievements, where several of Orange’s busiest roads were upgraded along with dozens of residential streets.

“This year’s program has a lot of bread and butter projects such as filling in the dip at Kite Street near Cook Park and an upgrade of Hill Street near the Orange Aquatic Centre, but also big ticket items such as a $3.4 million upgrade of Forest Road.

“The community has been crying out for work to start on that road,” Cr Kidd said.

“It’s a major project and we will be putting the tender out for that project in the next two weeks.

“Cargo Road, a major entrance to the city is also due to receive major work with the tender going out for that project in the coming weeks.

"There will be two Cargo Road projects coming up, one will be from the water tank to the council boundary at Neals Lane, where additional subsoil drainage will be added, the pavement strengthened and a new bitumen seal put down.

“The second project will be down the hill between Whitton Place to Ploughmans Lane, where the road will be widened and upgraded to an urban standard with kerb and gutter, piped drainage and a hot mix asphalt seal.

“We have a long list of priorities this year and we’re hiring additional staff to get the work done.”

New councillor Jo McRae is pleased to see the start of road work for the year.

“Roads and streets of our city have been a big priority for our residents and it’s great to see these works commencing,” Cr McRae said.

“The main key for me is the wonderful engagement we can have with the citizens of Orange by getting them to tell us where the issues are, and I’d encourage all residents to look at the Your Say Orange website because that does provide a list of all the projects, and a really great way to engage with the information about what’s going to be worked on, or raise issues that need to be addressed.”

“It’s been a steep learning curve and I have learnt a lot about the processes and a lot of information about road building, but it does come back as a councillor to being responsive to what the community wants and to continue to work with our wonderful council staff to make sure those priorities are pushed through.”

New councillor Tony Mileto said road-building is a crucial part of the council’s work.

“These projects are vitally important because people expect to have decent and safe roads within this city I think we’re working towards that objective at the moment,” Cr Mileto said.

“If we have heavy traffic going on those roads, they need to be built for that purpose. We need to do the research. We need to do the core samples and make sure that those roads are suitable for the purpose intended. And with some of the stuff I’ve seen so far since I’ve been on council we’re working towards that.”

Work on an industrial section of Lords Place, south, from Gardiner Road began on Tuesday with work happening at night, to reduce the impact on businesses.

Council road crews and specialist sealing contractors are working on this project.

A specialized fabric seal will be placed on Sunday 7 October as day works, with the hot mix asphalt contractor completing work on Monday and Tuesday night October 16 and 17.

“We’ve tried to minimise the impact on businesses as much as we can by completing the majority of the work during the evenings and on Sunday.

“We appreciate there are nearby residents who may have been affected by the noise but we have all hands on deck to get the work completed as soon as practically possible."

“This section of road is well and truly due for an upgrade and it is a busy section of road for many businesses and their customers,” Cr Kidd said.

Other highlights for this season include an upgrade of Leeds Parade from Margaret Street through to the Northern Distributor Road, a roundabout at the Icely Road, Winter Street and Wakeford Street intersection.

The list of road projects and expected time frames can be found on this section of the Your Say Orange site.