[NEWS]

A significant step forward in the repair of Reserve Creek Road has been achieved with the Transport for NSW confirmation to award the contract to SEE Civil

The contract, worth $5,978,367, will allow SEE Civil Pty Ltd to progress design work from 30 percent to 100 percent completion with initial work expected to start after Easter.

Work on site can then commence with the aim of having a temporary access part way through construction roughly 7 weeks after site work begins.

The Reserve Creek Road landslip presents a major design and engineering challenge, with the road significantly undermined by a 15-metre high, near-vertical landslip which occurred during the February-March flood.

Transport for NSW has confirmed funding approval to cover the cost of repairs.

Council is aware of the issues facing the local community and the significant connectivity impacts associated with the road closure and has therefore prioritised the possibility of providing a one lane temporary access with the contractor which will be confirmed during the remaining design period.

The process of rebuilding

The list below summarises the high level processes we need to follow to fix the landslip at Reserve Creek Road. Given our current knowledge of the sites, it’s difficult to provide accurate dates for each part of the process. There may be opportunities to run some of those in parallel however, we won’t know until we start to confirm the preferred solution. The outline below will give you an idea of why the works will take at least 12 months.

Geotechnical procurement (completed)

Fixing landslips is a complex engineering task. It is crucial that the foundation of the slip is properly stabilised to prevent a similar failure occurring in the future. Specialist geotechnical engineers are used by Council to investigate the best option suited to Reserve Creek Road’s specific site conditions. Only then can the missing piece of road be constructed over this new foundation.

The geotechnical assessment is broken up into 2 stages:

• Stage 1 is a preliminary assessment to make recommendations about the short term safety of the site.
• Stage 2 involves boring holes to investigate the soil in and around the slip including scientific testing, this information is used to determine options to fix the slip.

• Design and construction tender (underway)

We draft a design and construction document in preparation for the tender process. We then advertise the tender, evaluate all submissions then select the preferred tenderer based on the NSW legislation and our Procurement Policy which define specific processes and minimum timeframes. The tenderer then develops the design for approval by Council and Transport for NSW.

Environmental assessment

All work Council undertakes, including the repairs required on Reserve Creek Road, requires approval under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act – in much the same way as residents need a Development Approval to carry out renovations on their homes. This is to ensure there is minimal environmental impact during the construction of the work and that the final construction won’t cause any additional impacts to residents or the environment.

Consultation with the community

We will consult with residents and businesses who will be directly impacted by the works to ensure they are not adversely affected by our activities. If they are, we will put in place measures to minimise these impacts.

There are several properties through which we are likely to require access to carry out the work.

Construction

At high level, a typical construction process to fix significant damage such as those sustained along Reserve Creek Road would involve site establishment, excavation of slip areas, foundation works, wall construction or stabilisation structural works as well as earthworks, drainage, road subbase, pavement, line marking and safety barrier works.

At this stage, it is difficult to estimate the time required by the contractor to complete the works as it is dependent on the geotechnical solution as well as the expertise and resources of the contractor.