Orange City Council has asked ratepayers to be patient as persistent cold, wet weather made more extensive road repair next to impossible and road crews were left to mitigate some of the deepest potholes in the best way they could to address safety risks.

Some ratepayers have been patient, while others have been less so during the wait for the wet weather to break.

But it seems there’s a ray of light on the horizon, with the start of the road building season in East Orange in the later days of last week, starting with Paling and Austin streets.

This will be a twofold test for the council.

The first will be how much work it can physically get through until the weather cools again because while ratepayers might settle for uneven roads for one winter, two might be a stretch if a road is promised for completion but does not happen this season.

Fortunately, the council seems to have set itself up well for that, contracting extra employees to take on the load.

The state and federal governments have also injected natural disaster money towards that cause, which will hopefully ease pressure on the budget.

The second is the road network’s long-term condition.

It is one thing to repair a pothole, but quite another to resurface a road to a better standard in order to prevent more from occurring.

It has been encouraging so far to see roads sealed with hotmix asphalt keep their integrity through the rains.

If the roads repaired this season perform the same way, residents can be reassured real progress is being made and if their road is not addressed this season, future seasons will take care of the problem.

Of course, all of this is dependent on those dreaded rains not returning.

In the meantime, rather than taking to social media, residents can help most by continuing to report road damage to the council by clicking on the Report It button on the website so jobs can be logged and prioritised.

With $15 million to spend this road building season, we wish the council the best of luck.