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This crater on Melrose Drive in Phillip is one to be avoided. Photo: Facebook.
The latest wave of wet weather is proving a perfect storm for City Services crews battling to stay on top of crumbling roads and spring grass growth.
Social media has been ablaze with comments about the number and sheer size of the potholes appearing in roads across Canberra as the rain refuses to let up.
Potholes open up as water seeps into cracks and erodes the base layer of the pavement, and if a vehicle hits a big enough one tyres and worse can be damaged.
A post on Canberra Notice Board on Thursday morning observed five cars on the side of the GDE and Parkes Way as drivers changed tyres.
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“Surely we can start a class action. These roads are not being maintained. I had to get one of my rims re-rolled due to a pothole. Don’t know why our cars have to pass roadworthy when the roads aren’t car worthy!” the post said.
The government does consider requests for compensation and this year it has paid out 50 claims at a cost of $43,148.96, with the average claim worth about $860.
The bill has increased steadily since 2020 when there were just 16 claims ($9098), while last year 40 claims totalled $39,024.85.
The rain is not only wreaking havoc with the roads but preventing crews from repairing potholes.
A government spokesperson said crews would be proactively assessing the road pavement until it was able to be repaired once the rain stops.
A trap for drivers is waiting on Majura Avenue, Dickson. It appears to have been repaired multiple times. Photo: David Murtagh.
The spokesperson warned drivers to keep a lookout for potholes and take into account the weather.
“Canberrans should drive to the conditions and report any potholes to Fix My Street so teams can quickly respond to any areas that pose an immediate safety concern,” the spokesperson said.
“We are allocating all available resources to identify, assess and respond to road safety hazards. Repairing potholes in wet weather is challenging as the asphalt mix doesn’t settle.
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“Wherever possible we are applying temporary patching particularly on key arterial roads.”
Roads ACT says preventative resealing of the pavement is the most cost-effective method of maintaining good road conditions.
The government is currently auditing the road surface condition as part of a new trial program involving rubbish trucks fitted with artificial-intelligence pothole detection technology. There is no report on how successful this has been yet.
Verges like this on Streeton Drive in Stirling are getting away again. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The wet is also keeping grass cutting crews sidelined, at what is traditionally the fastest growing period of the year.
The government expected the season to be a tough one and allocated $1.2 million through the budget to pilot a new 10-person rapid response mowing team.
“We did this in anticipation of yet another La Nina weather system and are prepared to keep our city looking clean and tidy once the current rain event subsides,” the spokesperson said.
“This means our mowing fleet now has 81 vehicles in the updated team, with each full mowing pass covering an average of 4907 hectares.”
The community can report an area in need of attention from the rapid response mowing team by completing an online form at Fix My Street.
Pretty sure that hole is on Yass road going down to Fairbairn. With the other 24 next to it.
Might help if, when they ‘repair’ those potholes, they take into consideration all those cracks surrounding said potholes. Water’s still seeping through those cracks and before you know it, there’s the potholes again. Common sense, I’d have thought. No good doing half a job, but typical.
When the hole is filled the filling material needs to be thoroughly compacted (so the water has no where to accumulate) and a convex meniscus should be left on the top (to allow the surface water to run off). This is what we were taught in primary school.
They way they do it now means when it rains the infill is flushed out the very next time rain falls. Warning signs should be erected.
Roads around the shoalhaven area are so much worse than Canberra. We had to swerve all over the road last weekend to avoid so many holes & we still hit one & a week later still don’t have our car towed back to our house 🤨
So are roads in other parts of NSW and Queensland worse.
Thanks to the tireless road crew for doing this. It’s an endless task at the moment with endless whinging to accompany it.
Julie Kidd unfortunately our society is a ” i want now ” and don’t have brains. Patients is key. Until the rain stops for at least a month or so we can’t fix this issue.
“Rain is causing new damage”… What are they using? I was in countries where it rains way more and it doesn’t cause this. Do we have acid rain or what?
Absolutely – quite right. And what’s more, when they fix potholes elsewhere (where it rains at least as much if not more), they stay fixed.
Its so dangerous to be a motorcyclist on Canberra’s roads these days…
Where I live, the council thought it a good idea to put a witches hat in a huge pothole almost in the middle of the lane (just after a blind corner) 🥴
Down our way the repairs only last 2 days no matter if it is wet or dry as they council here is useless in how they repair our roads, spray and put gravel in it and it is not at all effective.
A good way to avoid potholes is to not tailgate so you have time to avoid them. Tired of the wingers. We have had two and a half years of well above average rainfall. It’s what happens when it rains, and yes, it takes time to get to all the potholes, particularly when the rain keeps coming.
What’s Andrew Barr doing today?
There’s a roundabout near North Ainslie Primary School where someone thoughtfully placed a traffic cone inside the giant crater to make it easier to spot and dodge.
“stay on top” more like totally defeated; we have a massive hole on Carruthers street as you enter Curtin that has been there for 2 months and is getting bigger and the hobbit family that have moved in will need to be evicted before they can fill the hole !
Slow down out there folks! Apparently the ACTgov may not pay all pothole tire damage claims and they have a huge backlog to sort through. It’s just not worth the hassle in the first place, it’s best to slow down and avoid the potholes in the first place.
Matthew Pez Or it might be better to use quality materials instead of the obvious cost cutting by the ACT Government. Good roads don’t just fall apart after heavy and incessant rain. Imagine hitting one of these on a motor bike. Could be a fatality. When they are full of water, and in particular, when it is getting dark, no amount of ‘slowing down’ will help. Avoiding them has its own dangers – you can’t just swerve all over the road in traffic to miss the holes.
Jan McElligott slowing down will absolutely always help – because you’ve got more time to observe and react. I can’t comment on the apparent lack of quality materials used because I know little about road building, I’m presuming that the same goes for you. I do know that we’ve had record rainfall though.
Jan McElligott and we shouldn’t have to! Roads should be safe with the amount of money we pay for them!
Jan McElligott not only that, if you hit a pothole going a bit slower, there could be less chance of damage. I’m not happy about this whole thing either, but we could all take at least a bit of responsibility.
Thinking back to the good old days pre self government when we had the best roads in Aus….now, not so much….
Chris Olsen we also didn’t have three la Nina events in a row bringing massive amounts of rain.
Chris you still have the best roads in Australia, by a looooong way. Come out to regional NSW and you’ll see how good Canberra’s roads are.
Chris Olsen that was when the Fed Govt foot the bill.
Rheyce Spears perth roads are better 😎
Rheyce Spears I drive out to the Central West and Riverina often. I’m not talking about there roads. That’s for the state Gov and local councils to deal with.
Joan James I’m very aware of that. Simply stating how much better they were.
Karl Brown Not even talking about that at all, simple stating a fact that our roads were much better pre self Gov.
Chris Olsen pre self government roads (which most of Canberra is incidentally) would not have been able to handle the rain. It’s unprecedented.
Chris Olsen think it’s time to get off that ol bandwagon. Canberra has grown exponentially over the past 20+ yrs; pre self gov’t there wasn’t anywhere near as much rain, especially huge in the last 5yrs; ACT Govt has way more to spend on a growing capital…think it may be the amount of workers doesn’t equate to the continual upgrades and repairs needed (funding, equipment etc and if like other places, getting hard to get people into limited job availability and economic constraints with that). Just saying that there are plausible reasons other than “pre self govt”, which in fact and compared to self govt, was a bottomless pit of dollars.
Pre-self-government, average vehicle weight was about half a tonne lighter compared with the small trucks many people seem to think make them look good these days The impact of the extra vehicle weight on road damage tends not to be recognised, but is real.
This morning I saw a road crew literally putting asphalt in a pothole half filled with water,using a shovel, I thought to myself, how long is that going to last… Not long
Chris Jirgens might stop someone car being wrecked for today at least as an interim measure
Chris Jirgens damned if they do, damned if they dont
Chris Jirgens what do you suggest they do?
What’s the process for having 2 wheels replaced from hitting a pot hole?
Where’s all those new rapid mowers?
Instead or fixing the same pot holes over n over some in our area 20 times or more this year why dont they just do the good properly once and be done with it and move onto the next one like this the roads will never be fixed
Why has it got to this stage ?
Stan Dukic cost cutting from our great chief minister and this is what you get !
Mark Bowell 💯 agree with you Cost cutting across the board and taking election promise money from some areas !
The problem isn’t the rain; good quality road in good condition doesn’t just fall apart because it rained. Look at the cracks in the piccy above! Cheap out on the roads and this is what you get.
Peter de Vries exactly cost cutting at its best well don’t mr Barr
Peter de Vries totally agree
Peter de Vries absolutely spot on 👍
If a push bike rider came off in that pot holes can you imagine what the law suit would be but a car getting damaged by it, is the owners problem to repair their car. ACT roads ain’t roadworthy.
Maybe if they would build roads better then this wouldn’t happen everytime it rains
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Pretty sure that hole is on Yass road going down to Fairbairn. With the other 24 next to it. View
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