Wet weather adds to Bathurst council's road repair backlog

Bathurst received almost 40 millimetres of rain in less than 24 hours on Thursday and Friday, resulting in multiple road closures across the city.

The significant downpour also affected the integrity of other road surfaces, creating further potholes for council staff to fix.

On Friday, just hours after the rain stopped, council crews were already out and about attempting to patch the holes and carry out other repairs.

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Manager of works Simon Armitage said there were three crews dedicated to patching and improvement works on Friday, with their focus being on patching potholes brought on by the wet weather.

However, Mr Armitage has acknowledged it will be a long time before they can address all the roads in need of work.

"Council is months away from catching up with the number of potholes and road failures as a result of the extended period of wet weather," he said.

"Nights like [Thursday] night only puts the works back further. We have every available resource attending to road repairs but there is so much it is quite overwhelming at the moment.

"What is needed is a period of sustained dry weather, or no rain for a couple of months, so that we can start to get on top of the vast quantity of failures that require repairs."

Deputy mayor Ben Fry agreed that the lack of consistent dry weather is impacting council's ability to get on top of its road repairs.

"Our catchment is already saturated and we're seeing deluges almost weekly at the moment, which is just extrapolating the wetness and the flooding that we see around town," he said.

"Water sitting on roads for a long time is never a good thing and car movements obviously make things a little trickier, too.

"I'd like to apologise to the people of Bathurst for the delays that they see in their travels, but know that our council crews are working around the clock to try to remediate these roads. Bandaid fixes and temporary repairs are the go-to during the wet season because there are simply not enough dry or sunny hours in the day to actually make a long-term fix."

He encouraged motorists to be patient, allow extra travel time and, importantly, to be considerate of council staff.

"People commenting on social media, please bear in mind that council workers are people, too, and they're doing their best with the resources they are given to remediate our roads," Cr Fry said.

Further wet weather has been forecast for Bathurst this week and the upcoming summer is also expected to be wetter than usual.

Cr Fry said Bathurst has yet to see the worst of the impact of the wet weather on the city's roads.

He also acknowledges there is a need to direct more funds in council's budget towards roads.

"The problem is going to get worse. We haven't seen anything yet," he said.

"... Next time we have a budget review, I would highly recommend other councillors joining me in trying to allot more funds to the engineering department.

"Every council across NSW is strapped for cash. We're always looking for ways to boost the bottom line. Roads is one of those things people expect at a bare minimum and I think if we can cut resources in other areas to allow for more remediation of roads, I think ratepayers will be happy."

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