After two years of work, damage caused to Isaac roads and waterways by Severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie has been restored through works jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA).
TC Debbie and other weather events had placed a huge strain on 205 roads, which led to 706km across 4457 sites needing restoration and resilience works.
Mayor Anne Baker said it takes a long time to bring roads and other infrastructure back to a high quality in the aftermath of excessive rainfall.
“Eighty-five per-cent of Isaac’s road network was damaged after Debbie,” Mayor Baker said.
“After an extensive amount of work, pure people power helped to rebuild the roads as part of a $50.1M works program.”
Mayor Anne Baker said the restoration of Isaac’s essential public assets was crucial to ensuring the region’s economic lifeblood continues to beat, benefiting the communities by upgrading and restoring a large number of the roads.
“The repaired and upgraded infrastructure will lead to safer roads, reduced travel time, increased resilience to weather damage and improved freight efficiency,” she said.
“In addition to better roads, the Isaac region saw an economic boost of almost $20 million.
“More than 150 employees and subcontractors were involved in the delivery of the contracted work and the spend within the Isaac region came to a staggering 40 per-cent of the total value from the works.”
Mayor Baker wanted to thank the contractors who worked on the projects for their conscious choices to choose local.
“The contractors used materials and hired plant from Isaac businesses. Moranbah, Clairview, Clermont, Dysart, Carmila, Middlemount, Nebo, St Lawrence and other regional Isaac regions have economically benefited from the value of subcontractor works.”
The funding was made possible through the NDRRA joint funding initiative of the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments which aims to provide disaster relief and recovery payments and infrastructure restoration to help communities recover from the impacts of natural disasters.
“Quality and safe roads are an important part of any community, and natural disasters can place a massive burden on ratepayers,” Mayor Baker said.
“The extent of the works that were needed across the region would not have been made possible without the financial assistance from the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments.”
