Sick and tired of potholes? So are our crews

Published on 31 May 2022

Everyone in Kempsey is sick of the potholes, but we guarantee there’s no one who hates them more than our crews.

For all the good rain brings to the Kempsey Shire it also presents big challenges, often in the form of big potholes.

So how do Kempsey Shire Council’s road repair teams cope in periods of wet weather and flooding? The answer is: The best they can.

Kempsey Shire Council Coordinator Maintenance Response, Garick Cahill, said the shire’s road network is made up of around 672 kilometres of sealed and 587 kilometres of unsealed roads.

"We look after a road network so massive that its length is similar of that from Kempsey to Melbourne," said Mr Cahill.

One of the most frustrating tasks for the road repair crew of Frank, Tash and James is repatching potholes they have only just recently repaired.

Water has a clever way of finding its way into the smallest of cracks, failures and even into recently patched potholes. It makes repairing roads very difficult and often the root cause of the failures date back to when and how the roads were made.

“We understand the community is frustrated and we share this frustration with them but crews are doing their best to complete this often thankless task,” said Mr Cahill.

"Our crews are doing their best to complete these often thankless tasks with the limited resources we have and the continuation of rainy weather."

There are a lot of patching repairs ahead for crews and Council asks for patience and understanding of the challenges crews are facing. We are working hard to repair roads as swiftly as possible.

Find out how Council approaches road repairs