Disaster Recovery Projects

Because these events have been declared as disasters by the other levels of government, they qualify for funding assistance. Government guidelines require the Council to undertake and fund the works and then claim those funds back. Regional and rural councils, like Lithgow, have very limited financial capacity. The councils do not have the ability to carry large outflows of funds for disaster recovery works, without income from the government being received to offset this. As result, road repairs and other works must be phased, meaning the community’s recovery from the effects of disasters is delayed longer.   

The reality is that claims are being submitted by Councils faster than Transport for NSW can assess them.  However, Lithgow City Council continues to vigorously pursue and submit claims on behalf of the community in order to progress works.    

A significant amount of work goes into these applications. Every defect must be individually identified, photographed and uniquely registered, and included in the claim alongside a cause, treatment identification and justified cost. In some cases, these applications have hundreds of individual lines that are itemised by defect. 

Broadly, the process for each application is as follows. 

• Each road is inspected, and defects are identified and given an item number. 
• Each item is measured, photographed (several photographs for each item) and entered a claim form. 
• A detailed failure cause and treatment scope must be identified per defect. 
• The claim for each road can amount to hundreds of items and over a thousand photographs. 
• Transport for NSW (TfNSW) then review the claim and may ask for clarification on particular items. 
• LCC then respond to TfNSW enquires. This step of the process may have several iterations. 
• Once TfNSW are satisfied that all relevant details/information has been provided the claim is approved and council can begin the process of rehabilitating the road. 

Once the claim is approved, Council must follow legislated procurement procedures to identify suitable contractors to undertake works. For some projects, like Glen Davis Road, this has been previously completed. Once the Council has been advised in writing that the claim has been approved, the Contractor for that area will be contacted to ascertain when they are available to commence the works.  All contractors are currently engaged, and commencement of works is dependent upon Contractor availability. 

For other projects, procurement must follow the following process: 

Project Life Cycle  

• Development of detailed scope that aligns with the project approval outlined above. (2 weeks) 
• Public exhibition by open tender (4 weeks minimum). 
• Assessment of the tenders by a panel of specialists within Council. (3 weeks) 
• Reporting to the next available public meeting of Council for tenders over the $250,000 threshold (this captures most projects). (up to 4 weeks) 
• Letter of approval to be sent to the successful contractor. (2 weeks) 
• Contracts to be drawn up and executed. (2 weeks) 
• Lead time based on contractor availability (varies, on average 4 – 6 weeks) 
• Mobilisation, pre-start and contractor induction. (1 week) 

If a claim is not approved, Council must argue the claim and further support the engineering basis for works. In the worst-case scenario, Council must identify alternative sources of funding to complete the work.