Flood restoration works on Kyogle Road between Uki and Byangum Bridge marks a significant step forward in Tweed’s ongoing flood restoration program, which continues into 2025.
The completion of the project before Christmas has proven to be a timely win for the Uki community and holiday motorists using the road.
A trail of destruction
In late February 2022, the Tweed River ripped a trail of destruction along the road, resulting in three major land slips and washing away a large section of Mount Warning Road.
Kyogle Road was reduced to one lane in several locations between Uki and Byangum Bridge and a temporary track was required to be created on Mount Warning Road.
Contractor CMC was engaged to restore the four sites, a project with a total cost of $47 million, funded by the Australian and NSW Governments through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
Riparian restoration
The work involved not only restoring the road to its previous condition before the 2022 floods but also included riparian restoration measures. These included inserting timber pin rows into selected sites on the banks of the Tweed River as ecological and design protection measures.
Restoration work began in February 2024 on all sites and was completed ahead of schedule.
The restoration work across all sites required 11,200 tonnes of armour rock, the construction of 3445 gabion rock baskets which required hand placing of more than 480,000 rocks and the insertion of 528 soil anchors into the banks to secure and stabilise them.
In addition to this, 3800m3 of rock backfill and 163ms of concrete was used to complete the project.
The program has already seen $132 million spent on completed works, with more than $100 million in further funding approvals from the Australian and NSW Government for the next round of restoration works.
Wonderful news
Mayor of Tweed Chris Cherry said the completion of the restoration work was wonderful news, not only for the Uki community but users of Kyogle Road.
‘The floods of 2022 impacted significantly on the Tweed community, especially those living in our hinterland,’ Cr Cherry said.
‘Kyogle Road is key connection to Murwillumbah for residents and a popular route connecting the Tweed to our neighbouring shires.
‘I would like to thank contractors CMC for their work in restoring Kyogle and Mount Warning Roads and also working with the local community to have this significant project completed ahead of what is a very busy time of the year.’
Contractor CMC had to ensure the road remained open to one lane through the various sites during construction and with the locations close to the Tweed River, environmental measures were put in place to avoid any contamination from the work sites.
For more on the Tweed’s flood restoration program, visit tweed.nsw.gov.au/flood-restoration-works
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