Geoff Helisma |

Residents who live on or use Florda Prince, Florda Gold, Florda Red or Dinjerra roads may soon experience a smoother ride on certain sections of the roads.

At yesterday’s Clarence Valley Council (CVC) meeting, councillors are likely to have supported the allocation of $252,000 – from its 2019/20 Roads to Recovery funding for unsealed road re-sheeting and stabilisation programs – towards the project.

The council’s general manager, Ashley Lindsay, and other senior staff attended a community meeting at Halfway Creek on March 27, where they spoke with and about problems people in the area were experiencing.

The initiative will be implemented following the “success of the gravel road trials on Ashby-Tullymorgan Road”, the report to council stated.

“Given the success of some of these treatments, council staff wish to expand the trial materials and methods to other roads and also trial an additional [proprietary] product … known as a GATT (Graded Aggregate Total Treatment ) seal … a low cost surface treatment made up of a mixture of bitumen and stone.”

The report to council stated that a GATT seal is a “possible treatment on unsealed roads with low traffic volumes where there is not a significant amount of heavy traffic and the road does not have locations where there will be a lot of stress transferred to the road surface, such as tight curves and steeper terrain”.

“It is proposed to trial this product on the first 800 metres of Dinjerra Road from the end of the existing sealed surface,” the report to council stated.

“The success of the work will partially rely on the residents driving slower over this section of road once the road is initially treated.

“Council will liaise with the local residents over this process prior to any work being undertaken.

“The objective of the trials is to provide a road surface that remains in a stable and serviceable condition between the grading cycles.

“Given the success of some of the treatments to date, there is the potential that some surface treatments may last in excess of 12 months without grading, which may ultimately enable Council to reduce its maintenance grading regime and reinvest the savings into the re-sheeting program.”

“The local resident committee advised that they will work with Council to distribute information on the proposed treatments.”