paidal_chalne_vala wrote:The BHP road from the Dam wall down to the Omeo Hwy. is deteriorating and needs to be ripped up and resealed PROPERLY . Every green season the Mt. Hotham road is given some kind of maintenance work which is necessary.
This does not happen along the BHP rd..
The simple answer is the GAR is Vic Road managed and BHP is managed by two shires and neither want to spend money on it. Vic Roads handed it back to the shires and gave them some money for maintenance. There are a few different stories about what happened. Some say Falls Creek resort did not want black bitumen as it would heat up more and effect the cross country groomed snow track. The base for it came out of the tunnel which was built for the hydro scheme. It was close and cheap but it was also the wrong stuff to use as a base. The dirt road was not even graded before sealing and the seal was as simple as pouring on the mix over the dirt followed by a second seal. Drainage was never considered and major earthworks would have been more problematic as lengthy approvals would have been required. You can feel and see the corrugations in the road on some of the bends from Trapyard gap to the highway from before it was sealed. There is a section of road near Langford West camp which actually moves up and down like a water bed at the end of winter and that is just with my 80kg frame. This is the reason why the road does not open at the end of the ski season even if there is no snow on it. It has to dry out. Heavy machinery cannot drive on it to clear drifts, such as the big one near Cope, until it is dry.
As a part of the Federal Government blackspot funding program, EG shire was give a sum of money to make safety improvements. It spent the money painting a centre line on a road which is not wide enough to legally have a centre line and then put in orange road markers. All the white markers were pulled out. The reasoning for the orange markers is they are safer on a snow road. Trouble is they are covered in snow during winter and the road is closed. I suggested it would have been better erecting more railing on a few dangerous bends but that was rejected. A few weeks after my suggestion was rejected, a car went off the road on one of those bends and started a bushfire. I suggested a better way to reduce road trauma would be to reduce the speed limit. That was also rejected and it remains 100 kph. The Alpine shire management strategy is to not do any work and put up temporary hazard and speed reduction signs. Vic Roads is aware of what is happening and was trying to negotiate something when I last spoke with it but it seems to have failed. As you can see, I have intimate knowledge of the problem and have come to the conclusion it would be better for it to go back to dirt and also back to Vic Roads.
As for the GAR, every year it melts in summer and there are warnings placed for the Hotham area. How does Australia's highest road melt? Perhaps it is closer to the sun. There seems to be a problem there. In contrast, the Omeo Hwy was given $14M for upgrade and sealing. The job was completed before the scheduled time and $1M under budget. It was also done extremely well and the company took the time to get all the drainage sorted first. There are a few places needing work each year but that is normal. Sometimes the snow plough will cut a bit deep and damage the road but in general it is holding well on the new sealed sections.
I know this is all a bit off topic. Sorry if it breaches the code but it may help people to understand.