By Tricia Mifsud
THE condition of Dry Creek Road in Kilmore has again been brought to Mitchell Shire Council’s attention in a plea from residents to have urgent maintenance work completed.
In a letter to the editor in the March 1 edition of The Review, Kilmore East resident Kevin Butler described the road as ‘undriveable’ and asked council if its councillors bothered to drive along the road.
Mr Butler, a farmer and truck driver, said there were several roads in the shire that needed attention, but Dry Creek Road should be at the top of council’s priority list.
“I’ve travelled every road in the shire. There are some that are unsafe and need work done, but this tops them all,” he said.
“We’ve got a pretty serious problem with Dry Creek Road … and it’s never going to go away. When someone gets severely hurt or killed, that’s when council may decide to do something about it.”
Mr Butler said councillors should drive along Dry Creek Road to see the issues for themselves. He said they would realise that even when the road was smoothed out, it was soon torn apart again when used by heavy vehicles.
“I think our shire’s councillors should drive that road every day to see just how bad it is,” he said.
“They [council] get a truck out there every two months or so, but metaphorically, it’s ripped apart again in five minutes with the type of trucks that use the road regularly.”
Mr Butler said council should prioritise road safety, and leaving Dry Creek Road in the state it was would lead to more crashes and potential fatalities.
“Nothing is as important as road safety and I would be extremely upset if I was the one who had to bury my daughter because she died driving on a road like Dry Creek Road,” he said.
Mitchell Shire Council chief executive Brett Luxford said council managed more than 1400 kilometres of sealed and unsealed roads, and safety of road users on all roads was a priority.
“Council staff are on the roads every day monitoring road conditions in accordance with the Road Management Plan,” he said.
“Our priority is to ensure safety for our residents, ratepayers and visitors. “
“The need for maintenance works on Dry Creek Road has been identified and works have been scheduled for later this month, weather permitting.”
Road maintenance issues within the shire can be reported at www.mitchellshire.vic.gov.au/reportit.
What do you think is the worst road in the shire? Let us know via email at news@ncreview.com.au or via our Facebook page.
Have a look at The Bridle Track, the lack of maintenance over the last 4 years is disgusting. There are also large livestock trucks using this rd on a daily basis and there are several narrow, tight blind corners.
Just because we’re on the northern fringe of the shire doesn’t mean that we should be continuously put on the bottom of the priority list, we pay big rates for no services.
You get shaken to bits even in a 4wd, vehicles develop bad rattles and knocks, lower and sports cars scrape spoilers and undercarraige (high centre ridge that needs to be straddled to avoid potholes and bad irrigation if the very narrow rd in several sections), and pot holes can’t be seen to avoid when there are shadows over the rd in the mornings (council have told us to just drive around them, they can be avioded……great if there’s traffic coming the other way…).
We are usually busy looking to the sides in order to avoid the many roos along here, makes it hard to attempt to avoid corrigation and pot holes too, which we should not be there for us to have to avoid in the first place.
The rd used be maintained every 6 months and was much safer and caused less car damage when that was being done. There are more residents on the rd and on rd adjoining now and much less maintenance of the rd.
It is definately a safety issue currently.