If John Lennon reckoned 4000 potholes in Blackburn, Lancashire songworthy*, he might have devoted an entire album to the state of Australia’s roads after months of rain and floods.
An estimated half of the nation’s A$16 billion (US$10.73 billion) public roads budget is spent on maintenance and repairs, according to Infrastructure Partnerships Australia.
State governments invest more than A$5.5 billion (US$3.69 billion) and local councils a further A$1.5 (US$1.01 billion), figures that will no doubt blow out considerably following the east coast’s recent big wet.
New South Wales maintenance crews alone filled more than 18,000 cracks, craters and cavities between February and November, many of them plugged one day and in need of refilling the next as the deluge continued….