12-05-2025
Country mayors concerned by NRMA report showing $3.4b road funding backlog
Cash-strapped New South Wales councils are facing mind-boggling backlogs as they struggle to keep road networks up to scratch.
An NRMA report estimates it would cost $3.4 billion to bring council-owned roads across the state up to standard after "an unprecedented wave of wet weather events over the past three years".
Most of the damage has been done in regional areas, including the Clarence Valley, where the repair bill jumped from about $270 million in 2022-23 to more than $390m in 2023-24.
Mayor Ray Smith said he was "not particularly surprised" by the findings.
"Clarence Valley Council has one of the largest, longest road networks of any council in NSW," he said.
"It's about 3,100 kilometres … trying to maintain that is a very, very expensive process.
The Clarence Valley is one of seven councils across NSW with an estimated road maintenance backlog exceeding $100 million.
NSW road funding backlogs 2023-24
Source: NRMA
The backlogs tend to be less costly in metropolitan areas, where road networks generally cover shorter distances.
The biggest backlog in the Sydney area is in Blacktown, where the repair cost is estimated at $84 million.
NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said statewide the backlog had increased by 20 per cent on the previous year.
He said the backlog for the Northern Rivers alone was $594.5 million.
"Not surprising considering the amount of rain and damage over the last few years that has been done to those councils and their roads," Mr Khoury said.
He said numbers in the Northern Rivers were likely to get "even worse" next year when the effects of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred were factored in.
Country Mayors Association of NSW chair Rick Firman said the statistics were "very, very confronting".
"It actually just hits you right between the eyes … how dire the situation is," he said.
"It cannot continue in the manner that it is.
"We need help and we want to partner and assist with our federal and state governments along this journey, but again, the old saying — if you haven't got socks on, you can't pull them up."
NSW Roads and Regional Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison said the report was being reviewed but was "generally consistent" with what was already known.
"In response to the increasing impact of natural disasters on the road network in our state, the 2024-25 NSW budget delivered $3.3 billion to rebuild road and transport infrastructure damaged by multiple severe weather events, which hit regional NSW the hardest," she said in a statement.
NSW was allocated $3 billion in road safety funding over the next 10 years in the 2024-25 federal budget.
The Commonwealth will provide about $630 million in road funding grants to NSW councils in 2025-26 under programs including Roads to Recovery and Safer Local Roads and Infrastructure.
But Wagga Wagga Mayor Dallas Tout said a longer-term solution was needed.
"We'll get different pockets of money, but there's no long-term systemic solution at this stage," he said.
"We'll get splashes of cash, but there's not the ongoing funding and that's what needs to happen.
"That's what needs to be ongoing into the future — recurrent funding."
