Roads in ruin

Fairfield Road in Katanning is in dire need of an upgrade with pot holes and uneven surfaces to be be found along the entire length of the road.

The road is one of many local thoroughfares in need of an upgrade.

Fairfield Road resident Sue Anderson said the road is dangerous in its current state.

“Fairfield Road is very unroadworthy at the moment,” she said.

“There is no edge to go off anymore and if you are passing a truck and hit a pot hole you nearly get dragged across.

“Also the increase in traffic has been phenomenal lately.”

Shire of Katanning chief executive Julian Murphy said the Shire was aware of the problem.

“We do know about it,” he said.

“We applied this year to have the road listed as a road of regional importance and that was accepted by the regional road group which allows us to apply for State funding from Main Roads.

“For next year we’ve applied for $160,000 in funding to do the first 4.5km of road and that has been accepted, so we’ll be repairing the flowered pavement and resurfacing the road to a six-metre width.

“In 2018 we’ll be applying for a similar amount of money for the remaining 4.6km of road and that should result in a pretty good sealed road.”

Earlier this year, theHerald revealed a backlog of $250 million in roadworks was needed across the Great Southern’s 1612km of State-managed roads.

That figure was 30 per cent of WA’s total roadworks backlog.