ANOTHER month, another attempt at getting Eglinton Road up to scratch.
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Councillor Warren Aubin has found himself again appealing for a better fix for the road after contractors were called in to do "heavy patching" on it.
It has been less than six months since Bathurst Regional Council had a 700-metre stretch between Bradwardine Road and Westbourne Drive resealed.
That job was labelled "crap" at the time by Cr Aubin and he was later told that the road would be resealed in November.
At Wednesday's council meeting, he asked why patching was occurring, not a full reseal, and was told by director of Engineering Services Darren Sturgiss that it was due to a lack of money.
The poor resurfacing job earlier in the year came at a cost of $200,000, and now council is paying $20,000 for the new section between Westbourne Drive and Rankens Bridge Road to be patched.
Mr Sturgiss told the Western Advocate that it would cost more to do a full reseal.
"Asphaltic concrete overlay in lieu of a hot sprayed bitumen seal for a standard seven-metre wide road costs $200,000 per kilometre, depending on site conditions," he said.
"Hot sprayed bitumen seal by comparison costs $35,000 per kilometre depending on individual seal design.
"Neither of these treatments, either hot sprayed bitumen or Asphaltic concrete, commonly known as hot mix, addresses structural problems with the underlying road pavement and is a weatherproofing and wearing layer only."
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Cr Aubin wants the money to be found and the job completed this financial year.
"It's got to be done right. It can't be one of these patch-up jobs," he said.
"It's just a band-aid job and I don't like band-aid jobs. I'd like to see it done properly."
Eglinton Road already has around 10,000 vehicle movements per day and Cr Aubin expects the number of vehicle movements to increase by as much as 7000 in the next few years due to new housing estates.
"Eglinton Road is one of the busiest roads in Bathurst. It needs to be of a high quality," he said. "You can't send 10,000 vehicle movements on a patched-up piece of goat track."
