[Roads] are getting worse because we’re not spending enough to maintain them.
Three-quarters of our roads are managed by local councils.
Every year, those councils spend A$1 billion less on maintenance than is needed to keep those roads in their current condition – let alone improve them.
The underspend is largest in regional and remote areas.
New Grattan Institute research finds the typical regional area has a funding shortfall of more 40%. In remote areas, it’s more than 75%.
One reason for this underspend is that untied federal government grants to local councils haven’t kept pace with soaring costs.
[…]
Tight budgets make it tempting to delay maintenance.
But delaying will only end up costing more in the long run, leaving taxpayers paying more to fix more badly damaged roads.
Are potholes actually repairable? Or is it shonky repair work? Because I swear there are some that reappear whenever there is the slightest rain.
What pisses me off more is that when a road is repaved, you can guarantee that some utility or other will be digging it up within 5 minutes, leaving patches and lines criss-crossing it and so uneven that the jarring bumps set off my dashcam collision event recording.
DavidDoesLemmy@aussie.zone 11 months ago
Also cars and trucks are getting heavier. Damage to the road scales exponentially with the weight of the vehicle. streets.mn/…/chart-of-the-day-vehicle-weight-vs-r…