Fix life-risking road

MT ECCLES residents are still waiting for South Gippsland Shire Council to uphold a promise the former Woorayl Shire Council made in 1973 to seal a narrow, winding road at a rate of a mile a year.
More than 40 years on, the unsealed section of Canavans Road after rain is riddled with potholes, has soft edges and at intersections with side roads, becomes a rutted mess.
Unsuspecting motorists either damage their cars driving into the potholes or swerve to avoid them, risking becoming caught on damp roadsides or running down one of the many steep embankments. Locals have even been bogged on the roadside after pulling over to let passing traffic through.
Resident Charlie Tumino is frustrated after years of lobbying council and being given promises.
In the mean time, Canavans Road is becoming busier, with more people moving to the district – leading to 26 houses between the end of the bitumen and the Grand Ridge Road intersection, Mr Price. He said more tourists using the road since the sealing of the Grand Ridge Road.
It’s the safety of the visitors that most worries resident Len Price.
“They’re probably driving a bit faster than what the locals do and they hit the potholes, and sooner or later someone is going to go over the edge and it’s a long way down,” he said.
“If the locals see someone coming then they will stop but this road carries a fair bit of tourist traffic which is not accustomed to the road and the conditions.
“There is a school bus route on this road and there is nowhere for anyone to go because of the potholes.”
Many locals live on small acreages and commute to jobs via Canavans Road, at the same a school bus uses the road. B-double milk tankers, and livestock and stockfeed trucks also traverse the road.
“The shire rates are going up and we get nothing for it,” Mr Tumino said, with Mr Price adding he pays nearly $10,000 in rates a year.
Mr Price, who has damaged two tyres after hitting rocks on the corner of potholes, is calling on council to apply more material to the road surface in the short term, but ultimately he wants the entire length of Canavans Road sealed – a distance he said is of approximately seven kilometres.
Council sealed a section of Canavans Road in 2000 but stopped short of its promised target of sealing to McKeans Road.
Canavans Road was graded last week, and further major drain maintenance is schedule for summer, with a major re-sheet next winter.
Council’s director of infrastructure Anthony Seabrook said, “There are also a couple of places where driveway runoff and cattle crossings are impacting on the road condition. These will be addressed by council’s assets team.”
Mr Seabrook said the road is generally graded twice a year – in autumn and spring – but there were no plans to seal the rest of Canavans Road at this stage.
He said there is no risk of drivers leaving the road if they drove to the conditions.
Canavans Road is sealed for 5.85 kilometres from its junction with Leongatha-Yarragon Road to Mt Eccles South, and this length of road was progressively sealed over the past 50 to 60 years.
“The most recent section of Canavans Road to be taken from gravel to seal was the section known locally as ‘The Gorge’ and this was done over 10 years ago,” Mr Seabrook said.
He said gravel roads sealed over the years with extra government funding generally carried traffic volumes in excess of 150 vehicles per day.
“Canavans Road carries on average 45 vehicles per day through the unsealed section,” he said.

Lives at risk: residents of Mt Eccles are worried about the safety of Canavans Road, with large potholes recently impacting drivers’ ability to safely travel the road. Among the residents are, from left, Len Price, Charlie Tumino, Kaylene Price and Judy Hetherington.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Sep 18 2018. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry