Coopers Lane residents have expressed concern at the fact that the state and federal governments have failed to provide the funding needed to ‘build back better’ the sole road access for hundreds of residents following the 2022 floods.
During the 2022 flood the existing 40-year-old three-pipe configuration was significantly damaged with residents being the ones to reinstate a narrow road access once the floodwaters had receded.
‘It is our sole road access when Maori Creek cuts the road, as it did for a week in March 2022. We had to wade through its flood waters then hitch a ride seven kilometres to town for supplies. The wading is due to the three pipes inevitably getting blocked when flood debris plugs the pipe entrances,’ explained spokesperson for the Coopers Lane Residents Association and civil engineer and flood hydrologist, Duncan Dey.
‘Until the flood recedes a few days after rain stops, water cannot enter the pipes, the culvert forms a dam and water overflows onto the road. In 2022 this washed the road away and left many of the dozen or so eight-foot-long concrete pipes strewn around in the creek bed. The “destroyed” roadway was put back by locals in March 2022 and has served us for four years to date, with occasional resurfacing by Council.’
Only 10% more
Byron Shire Council spent significant time and energy lobbying the state government for a ‘build back better’ grant to build a box culvert over Maori Creek that Mr Dey says would have cost around ten per cent more than reinstating the existing structure which is estimated to cost $506,357.
‘For the state government not to go the extra ten cent of budget required to change the configuration to one that won’t block is a slap in the face,’ Mr Dey told The Echo.
‘Why would you waste half a million dollars to put back a structure that has an inherent fault? When we get cut off, it’s us locals that have to clear the blocked pipes to restore the road’s function. And it’s dangerous work.’
One person has already been sucked into the pipes while trying to clear debris to stop the pipes blocking – they fortunately survived.
Byron Shire Council have said that, ‘The only change to the Essential Public Asset Restoration (EPAR) approved scope is that Council has funded the concrete pavement over the top of the culvert to increase resilience in a major event.’
Local resident Alex Polo told The Echo that it is ‘a real shame that the root cause of the problem is not being addressed as part of the rebuild, as the causeway was completely blocked just after Christmas with the flash storm that passed and Council were out to clear it as it required an excavator to pull out the large debris items.’
Frustration at the state and federal governments short-term approach to rebuilding back after the flood has also been expressed by local Ballina MP, Tamara Smith, who told The Echo that, ‘one of the most frustrating and completely ludicrous phenomenon we see in the rebuild of infrastructure after natural disasters is funding that expressly prohibits any component of “building back better”.’
‘The repair of Coopers Lane crossing is a case in point. Despite intense community lobbying and my relentless and ongoing lobbying of relevant state and federal ministers and the NSW Reconstruction Authority for more betterment funding after the 2022 floods, the bottom line is that Commonwealth funding for disaster recovery has very little set aside for betterment when it comes to repairing infrastructure. Replacing like with like is the norm and building back better is the exception,’ she said.
‘The near-sightedness of it is so obvious – spend the money now to future-proof against further disasters and save money, and potentially lives, down the track.’
Works on reattaching the old pipes is expected to finish in six weeks. But as Mr Dey points out, as the new bedding for the pipes settles this means that the pipes will soon be misaligned, creating a worse long-term outcome than the original construction.
‘Bureaucrats in places far from the site have decided that we can keep clearing the pipes year after year until the next washout. Their answer is, rather than stop the pipes from being plugged up, we’ll just add a concrete top over the pipes to reinforce the roadway above them. As a person with decades of training and experience in water flow, I predict the impact of this reinforcement will be that the creek downstream of the pipes will scour out along with the roadway east of the crossing. The latter already serves as a creek bed in flood times.’
Aslan Shand is a resident of Coopers Lane.
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