President of the Currarong Community Association, Tony Lund, said village residents want to know what happened to the money?

He said they also want to know why they were not told straight away that the money was gone?

“The community is just totally upset about this,” Mr Lund said.

Shoalhaven Council City refutes the claim the money is gone and the project will not go ahead - see council’s full statement below.

The Currarong community members have been pushing for road improvements for years and finally thought they had success.

Residents were told in  August 2017, by Shoalhaven City Council, that NSW Roads and Maritime had allocated $1.45M for the road to ‘seal the kerb and remove various hazards’ for four kilometres leading into the village.

The funding was under the NSW Safer Roads initiative.

Let’s go for a drive on the bumpy Currarong Road (watch the video) to see why the money is needed  - see video.

Mr  Lund said to get that amount of money for the road was amazing and members of this close community were celebrating.

Then came the bad news.

The association, in September 2018,  was told the work was not proceeding due to ‘significant restraints, particularly underground and above ground services and vegetation’.

Mr Lund and Les Lawrenson, another local, express their frustrations (see video) on the matter.

The road issue will now be discussed at the association's meeting tomorrow (Saturday, February 16) at the Currarong Progress Hall from  2.30pm.

State Member for the South Coast, Shelley Hancock, will attend the meeting.

Mrs Hancock, last year, delivered a Private Members Statement in State Parliament on the matter.

She expressed her intention to work with Road Maritime Services and council to resolve the issue.

“We also need to work in partnership with the community, because they were kept in the dark about the funding and so was I,” Mrs Hancock said in the statement.

“We needed to know why this funding was lost and that it had been lost so that we could move forward.”

A spokesperson for Shoalhaven City Council refutes the claims the money for Currarong Road is gone and project won't go ahead.

The South Coast Register sent council a list of questions and here is the full reply.

Residents out at Currarong are unhappy the $1.5 million council received to improve Currarong Road was returned to the RMS and they want to know why money was returned?

The funds were not “returned”. Council did not “receive” $1.5 million. Because of the significant constraints along the road a detailed investigation was required to look at options. Council originally only sought funds for the survey design and cost estimation to investigate options for Currarong Rd (7.7 to 11.5km east of Coonemia Rd), which is where an identified cluster of crashes had been reported and appeared to meet Federal Government black spot criteria.

The NSW Government, however, surprised council when it confirmed that the $1.45M for construction was reserved in their budget, based on council’s original application, subject to council confirming that it could deliver a viable project to RMS satisfaction.

Council’s design investigations yielded two possible options

This included a $2.2M option (0.5m shoulders) and a $3.5M option (one metre shoulders). Both options included very significant travel lane widening which would also deliver very significant safety benefits given the current narrow travel lanes.

Because of the higher costs associated with the project, the NSW Government has not approved any of the options, and only agreed to reimburse council the $45,000 that council expended on the survey and design investigations. The $45,000 was subsequently claimed and paid to Council last year.

Council has asked the RMS not to delete the project, but to consider the Currarong Road project should the Government be able to identify funding for either of the two options, with the $3.5M option being Council’s preference, to achieve wider sealed shoulders for safer motoring and cycling.

Why wasn't this communicated to the community?

Because council doesn’t consider the project is not going ahead, council considers the project is deferred as discussions continue with RMS regarding potential options to fund the higher cost of the project.

How much is required to undertake the work on Currarong Road to seal the kerb and remove various hazards as originally planned ?

Answered above, but it was never intended to ‘kerb’. Wider sealed shoulders was proposed consistent with the higher speed rural nature of the road

How much money can council put towards this project?

Council currently has no funds committed for capital improvements to the road, and continues to seek any available grant funding. Maintenance funds will be allocated as required on a needs basis, however, the project in question was not a maintenance project, but a capital improvement (to widen the current lanes and provide sealed shoulders where there are currently no sealed shoulders)

What are the options for obtaining further funding - eg state and federal grants?

Council has to apply for grant funding but would only be successful where the project meets specific program grant funding criteria (this based on Blackspot Funding Criteria). Because of the higher costs associated with the project, and because (since the original application was lodged) there has been a reduction in the number of reported crashes along the road, council currently would not be successful if it applied for grant funding under any of the current programs.

What time estimates would there be to get this funding? They know with other levels of government this is hard but the residents need to have some estimates on when the work might be done?

There is currently no available grant funding, so can’t provide an estimate of time.

What interim steps can be put into place to make the road safer eg lower speed limits and at least some resealing?

Council has no jurisdiction over speed zones, not even on local roads. All speed zones in NSW are managed by the RMS. The request by the local community consultative body for a reduction in speed zone has been referred to the RMS for consideration.

Residents were told significant restraints, particularly underground and above ground services and vegetation meant the shoulder work can’t take place.  Residents claim council should have known about the shoulder issues on the road. Why didn’t council know about these issues ?

Council did know about how constrained the road corridor was including the presence of vegetation, services, and adjacent National Park boundaries. However, in the absence of detailed survey and design investigations it was not possible to determine an exact scope of work and detailed costings which is what the NSW Government expects in a successful submission of grant funding for construction. This is why council only sought design funding in the first instance, to investigate options in detail prior to lodging an application for construction. This is common practice. However in this case it turned out that the cost of the options was going to be a lot more than the NSW Government was willing to spend for the benefits the project was going to deliver.

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