The Yass River Road is one of many roads in the region included in a push for better upkeep. Photo: Judith Davidson.
A Capital Country council is turning to a high-tech solution after residents raised major concerns surrounding road quality and safety.
During a recent meeting, Yass Valley Council (YVC) unanimously voted to recommit to road upkeep.
In a notice of motion, councillor Alvaro Charry wrote that residents had raised concerns about the quality and safety of roads in the southern part of Yass Valley’s local government area.
Several unsealed roads are described as representing “an increasing safety hazard”, with Marked Tree Road set aside as a key example in the council papers.
“The community members the councillors spoke with described a noticeable and concerning decline in the standard of these roads and expressed a desire for clearer information on how Yass Valley Council collects and utilises road related data to inform maintenance schedules,” the documents state.
His motion called on the council to recommit to road rehabilitation and maintenance, especially for roads that created a safety risk for motorists and primary producers.
Cr Charry acknowledged that community advocacy (particularly from the Gundaroo and Sutton areas) had put these road conditions in the spotlight.
“This motion may seem symbolic, but it is also very important,” he said.
“This motion reaffirms Yass Valley Council’s commitment to prioritising safety [in] critical regional and rural roads.”
The motion also saw the council confirm its intent to use cameras with artificial intelligence (AI) that identify issues with roads, and use that data in prioritising repair works.
According to council meeting papers, the AI-enabled cameras were recently acquired by the council.
“With the assistance of this new AI system, council will be aiming to become more proactive with its road maintenance planning and repairs,” the documents state.
“The cameras are currently being utilised to inspect council’s entire regional and local road networks.”
According to council’s meeting papers, the council’s Unsealed Rural Roads Policy (which identifies road hierarchy and maintenance grading frequencies for unsealed roads) is under review.
The documents also state that about 90 roads across Yass Valley had traffic data collected on them over the past 18 months.
During the discussion, Mayor Jasmin Jones said the AI cameras would bring a clearer, up-to-date picture of the condition of Yass Valley roads (including any changes).
She shared her experience of seeing a similar technology at a recent conference.
“It was there where we actually saw … with real-time footage of how it was actually capturing and logging [changes] and creating a database for a local council.
“[The database] could be used to apply for funding – or indeed, actually justify what road condition your road was in ahead of applying for a disaster recovery funding.”
Cr Charry’s motion was also amended on advice from a staff member – while he had called for road maintenance schedules to be published on the council’s website and for community groups to be notified of works, they said the former was feasible.
“It’s just that, for us to be able to identify every community and progress association [as proposed] is going to be very difficult,” they said.
“It’s such a big change.”
Council documents state that traffic count data was previously published online, but YVC stopped this as it wasn’t being accessed by the public.
YVC CEO Gayleen Burley also asked that “in line with budget allocation” be added to the first part of the motion, which called for the recommitment to road rehabilitation.
