Why doesn't the council build better roads?
As well as improving the quality of local roads, Orange City Council is working to improve community understanding how roads are being managed.
In this video (Clip 4 in a series of 7), Works Manager Wayne Gailey explains how the council, decides which kind of road to build in each location.
Why weren’t the roads done properly in the first place so potholes wouldn’t happen?
The roads in Orange City have been constructed over the last 100 years to varying standards, depending on use, available budget and the technology and resources available at the time.
Over time the uses of surrounding land can change rapidly and some roads experience far higher traffic numbers and far heavier vehicles than expected.
All roads begin to deteriorate from the day they are constructed, so it is natural and expected that potholes will occur during their lives.
In that sense, pot holes are inevitable.
The emergence of a pothole is not necessarily a sign of a badly-made road.
A pothole happens when a small crack develops in the road surface, and after rain, water gets into the gravel foundations, weakening the underlying road base.
Passing traffic forces water further into the foundations and damages the surrounding road surface.
The likelihood that a pothole will happen, depends largely on the kind of road that’s built.
A road made of steel-reinforced concrete is very expensive to build but is much less likely to allow potholes to develop.
A road topped with 200 mm of hot mix asphalt, such as the re-surfaced Orange bypass road, is less likely to develop cracks and potholes, than a road surfaces with spray bitumen and gravel.
Orange City Council makes decisions on road construction and maintenance with consideration of the volume and type of traffic using a particular road.
Consultation has concluded
