Council working to plug hole

IT MIGHT still look like a gaping muddy hole in the middle of a suburban street, but the repair of Oliver Avenue in Goonellabah is on schedule.

Lismore City Council infrastructure services executive director Garry Hemsworth told a council meeting on Tuesday that repairs were still expected to be completed within three months.

“We are pushing on with the design, and with this type of work it has to be inspected and approved by the RTA,” he said. “Once we complete that we have to procure the boxed culverts. We previously gave an indication of three months and I think that is still the case.”

Like the corrugated iron culvert on the road to Tuntable Falls, the one under Oliver Avenue collapsed after surrounding dirt was washed away during the recent storms.

Mr Hemsworth said the council was inspecting all its corrugated iron culverts and examining alternatives, such as boxed concrete culverts.

The repair bill for the seven-metre wide, 13-metre deep hole in Oliver Avenue has been estimated at up to $800,000.

The Tuntable Falls Road culvert, which left 100 residents stranded after it collapsed, has been temporarily repaired.