2019-08-06 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                     6 AUGUST 2019


2                        GUIDELINES - GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR SEALING GRAVEL ROADS
DOCUMENT INFORM AT ION




Author                              Alex Neville, Technical Officer Capital Planning
                                    Infrastructure Services Department

Index                               ECM/Subject/

Attachments                         1.    Guiding Principles for Sealing Gravel roads



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Noosa Council manages and maintains 197km of unsealed gravel roads. The purpose of
developing the Guiding Principles for Sealing Gravel Roads is to provide criteria for decision
making in prioritising the current unsealed gravel road network for roads that may be considered
for sealing into the future. The guiding principles will enable staff to suitably respond to customer
requests for sealing of gravel roads and clearly identify the priority order of the unsealed gravel
roads within this program.

RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Technical Officer Capital Planning to the Services &
Organisation Committee Meeting dated 6 August 2019 and:
A.                        Adopt the Guiding Principles for Sealing Gravel Roads included as Attachment 1 to the
                          report;
B.                        Authorise the CEO to make any required minor amendments to the guidelines in the
                          future; and
C.                        Note staff will continue to improve the data collection on our gravel road network to further
                          improve the priority program.


REPORT
The purpose of this report is to have a set of guiding principles adopted to enable the decision
making process for the sealing of gravel roads into the future. This report is not seeking budget
funding to seal gravel roads, but seeks adoption of the guiding principles for the purpose of
informing the Noosa community on the decision making criteria for a gravel road to be prioritised
for sealing.
1.                       Background
Noosa Council manages 146 unsealed gravel roads across the gravel road network. Gravel
roads cost on average $6,932/km in operational and maintenance costs compared to $8,030/km
for sealed roads (2018/2019 Actuals). Unsealed gravel roads are maintained in accordance with
Council’s recurrent maintenance guidelines which sets out the level of service for routine
maintenance (e.g. grading, drain cleaning and vegetation clearing/slashing). Additionally, each
gravel road will be inspected and receive maintenance every 6 months unless there are other
emergent issues that require immediate action.
Council receives requests from customers asking for the sealing of hinterland gravel roads.
Residents purchase properties on gravel roads knowingly, and the property prices generally
reflect the access conditions to those properties.
Typical customer enquiries and their responses include:
                       Speeding

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