Acting director infrastructure Kate Lemon said many roads across the shire remained closed and some roads were still flooded or inaccessible.
She said shire employees had started initial impact road assessments to get a better understanding of the emergency upgrades that would need to be completed.
“Emergency works will focus on making the road safe and re-opening to traffic. These works will be prioritised across the coming months,” Ms Lemon said.
“Secondary impact assessments will then be completed while the emergency works are under way; these longer term works are likely to take up to two years to complete.
“Once we know the complexity of the works, we will be more informed about what is required, the cost of works and time frames.”
Ms Lemon said the damage was so vast and no part of the shire was untouched.
“What we know at this stage is that we have hundreds of kilometres of road damage, to cost well into the tens of millions of dollars,” she said.
“It will take time.”
Council takes care of an extensive road network — made up of 1140 km of sealed roads, 2440km of gravel roads, and 550km of earth roads.
Ms Lemon said as well as flood damage, there were outstanding general road maintenance requests to manage.
As a result, the shire has suspended the response time frames in line with the Road Management Plan relating to maintenance grading through to December 11.
“We are asking the community to be patient as we work through our inspections,” Ms Lemon said.
“If a road is closed, please follow the signs in place, as the damage to a drainage culvert or road surface may not be visible to the driver.
“While you may not see machinery on the road network in every area immediately, we are working through priorities.”
The community can continue to lodge service requests, either online via council’s website, by calling 1300 666 535, or in person at a customer service centre. Reporting directly to council is critical to ensure details of the request are captured correctly.
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