By Tanya Faulkner
Mind blowing, disappointing and unprofessional are words being used to describe the erosion and treatment of a popular road by locals in Emerald.
Emerald community member Donella Woods came forward to Star Mail about the conditions of her local road, and the lack of support to have repairs carried out.
The road in question is Bellbird Crescent, which currently has several large dips and holes in the road, some of which are frequently filled with water.
Ms Woods said this has been an issue for some time, and she is constantly hearing vehicles being damaged by the road.
“The damage is right outside my living room, and I often hear cars bottoming-out on the holes.
“Trucks are fine because they’re big enough to deal with the impact, but people in cars are struggling.
“Some people have started using my neighbours’ nature strip as a road to avoid the holes, and it looks like there’s a whole new road appearing on there,” she said.
Approximately 30 locals to the area have submitted numerous complaints to Council, which Ms Woods said has only resulted in ‘bandaid’ cover up work over the holes, and a couple of signs on the road.
“The only thing the council have really done is put a couple of signs at either end of the road to let drivers know the damage is there.
“We don’t have street lights on our road, so at night it is hard for drivers to see the damage and still hit it,” she said.
The biggest issue for Ms Woods is that they have not received any updates on what is happening with the road, and whether repairs will be properly carried out on the damage.
It has been a long road for residents of the area, who say these issues have arisen from when their power was moved underground in the latter months of 2022 and damages that occurred during that process.
Ms Woods said the contractors who were digging the holes for their power lines to go underground hit a water main, which is believed to be the cause of the significant ongoing damages.
“I came home one afternoon in October to find water gushing down the crescent, which the contractors said they’d hit a water main.
“Yarra Valley Water came out, had to shut off our water, and fixed the damage.
“We think there may still be some damage to the line somewhere, as there is often water coming out of the holes in the road – even in summer last year,” she said.
Later in November, 2022, when their power was being reconnected, Ms Woods said there was an incident with a boom lift that has added to the ongoing road damage.
“When they set up the boom lift to connect our power, the ground beneath it was too soft and may have still had water under it, because the hydraulic arm on the truck fell into the road.
“This happened twice before they got us connected.
“The contractors just filled the holes with dirt from the road, and left the rest on my neighbours nature strip and took off,” she said.
Since the end of last year until today, as traffic has been travelling up and down, that particular spot in the road has continued to degrade over time.
After several complaints to Cardinia Shire Council, MS Woods said they told her they are holding off repairs because the council is taking it through EP Aus Net, and say it is their responsibility to pay for and carry out repairs.
Cardinia Shire Council’s Manager Operations, Ana Caicedo said the water main and road pavement on Bellbird Crescent, Emerald was damaged by the installation of electricity infrastructure by a service provider contractor.
“As there are clearance requirements for works near electricity and water assets, Council is unable to complete repairs without engaging the service provider.
“Council is continuously following up with the responsible authorities to ensure that the road pavement on Bellbird Crescent, Emerald is repaired.
“While Council awaits a response, minor works are being completed to ensure the road surface is safe and trafficable,” she said.
However, Ms Woods said it’s not good enough.
“We are all ratepayers and we want the road fixed properly.
“The road still belongs to Council, and we hadn’t had issues until now, so they should be getting the road repaired properly,” she said.
