WORK may be ongoing along the hospital section of Forest Road, but a Spring Terrace resident says the rural stretches present a risk to motorists travelling between the village and Orange.
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Paul Knight used an Orange City Council meeting in Spring Hill on Tuesday night to highlight the condition of the road.
He said the route from the Mitchell Highway, including Millthorpe Road, Whiley Road, through the village and Forest Road, was the sole route to Cadia Valley Operations and its importance was not widely understood.
“Of all the rock Cadia produces, they can’t use their rock to make concrete so the aggregate from Shadforth quarry runs regularly, daily, through the village, out Forest Road and that tonnage is relentless,” he said.
“The roads out here can’t support that tonnage.”
Mr Knight said the situation was exacerbated when CVO upgraded its facilities and during the past 15 years, Forest Road had coped with trucks carrying fill to build Orange Health Service and others carrying quarry material to build the airport facilities.
Watch the council meeting here:
“For the last 15 years, we’ve watched Forest Road deteriorate to the point that you’ve got to say, in some places it’s a dangerous place to drive, particularly in wet weather,” he said.
“It’s lucky we haven’t had another wet winter because the surface between here and basically back into town is in a deplorable state and if you’re a pushbike rider, you can see it’s deplorable, it’s just cobblestones waiting for the water to sink in.”
He acknowledged $300,000-worth of work would soon occur east of Spring Terrace Public School this financial year and other work had been completed recently just outside Spring Hill, but more was needed.
“It needs more funding clearly,” he said.
Last month, the council completed jet patching and cold mix patching along Whiley Road, Worboys Street, Seaton Street, Forest Road and Beasley Road.
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