Financial sustainability in focus
Council manages $ 461.254 million of road , drainage and bridge infrastructure :
Rural Roads : 5,607.8 kms Urban Roads / Streets : 224.1 kms
This includes the maintenance , renewal and upgrade of the 3rd largest ( by length ) local government road network in Queensland .
There key challenges in managing this significant infrastructure asset are :
• Although the infrastructure as a whole has a long life it has been maintained , renewed and constructed across many decades , therefore at any point in time , the infrastructure is at different stages of its useful life .
• The delivery of the roads and drainage function is heavily dependent ( as one of its inputs ) on the availability and economic extraction of suitable gravel supplies having regard to legislative and other regulatory compliance .
• Gravel , a key input to roads , however : - it is a finite resource that takes millions of years to form . It can take seconds to disintegrate ( crushing / blasting / ripping ) - it has a rate of consumption higher than it is being replenished . - over time gravel deteriorates to the point where it is no longer a useful road construction product ( e . g . 7-15 years ) - over time the unit cost of gravel extraction and sourcing ( e . g . transport ) will increase as the resource continues to be consumed .
Our plans for 2021 / 22
Therefore the use / consumption needs to be considered over both the short and longer term - including the potential impacts on future renewal of assets in the vicinity of the gravel source .
• The roads and drainage infrastructure is subjected to weather events . Whilst every effort goes to mitigating the effects of these events , the severity and extent can sometimes result in considerable damage to the network and associated interruptions that may result .
• Given the region ’ s relatively small population ( and only 30 % living across a large geographic area of over 90 % the size of Tasmania ), there is limited funding available to meet the needs of the network .
Council is therefore heavily dependent on other tiers of government to assist in narrowing the funding gap . Not all funding is predictable or sufficient , so there is a constant juggling of priorities .
It is critically important therefore that any investment in the network aims to achieve the maximum benefit for the region .
• The region consists of a variety of different conditions which makes it challenging to adopt a “ one size fits all ” approach for dealing with road and drainage infrastructure assets ( e . g . construction and maintenance of a road in a sandy part of the region does require a different strategy and approach to one in an area of heavy clay ).
• The estimated life for various components of the infrastructure assets ( e . g . formation , pavement , seal , drainage ). have widely varying estimated useful lives ranging from 10 to 200 years .
• The condition of infrastructure assets at any point in time can vary - for example , it can be dependant on the availability of construction inputs ( e . g . gravel and water ) and road use ( for which Council has limited control for public roads ).
• As the infrastructure ages there are more faults or failures ( requiring more maintenance to keep operational ), therefore it is important that the infrastructure is renewed ( replaced ) in a timely manner to minimise the risk of further service interruptions . For instance , the cost of rehabilitation of road assets is significantly higher than renewal at the appropriate time . Therefore any unfunding of the renewal program is exposing Council to more expensive works in the future .
• As stormwater infrastructure is underground , we rely on a number of indicators of condition prior to making additional investment decisions - performance of the network during heavy rainfull events , visual inspection of pipes by CCTV , criticality of the service and current capacity ( e . g . stormwater in the CBD and location of asset ).
• Planning for this long term infrastructure is therefore done over a longer term including : - asset management plan ( 10 years ); - long term financial forecast ( 10 years );
Before investing , there is a stringent condition monitoring program , including video / imagery of the network , visual inspections , defect logging and roughness assessments .
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