Michelle Slater
Dangerous landslides and sinkholes from the devastating June storms continue to impact local road access and safety around the Strzelecki Ranges.
Latrobe City Council is in the midst of awarding $1.5 million in contracts to fix 69 landslips in the southern ranges.
Latrobe City has considered 49 of these landslips to be medium-to-high risk, with has caused lane closures and limited emergency access in some areas.
Latrobe City previously awarded $650,000 to fix landslips at Upper Middle Creek Road in Yinnar South, Budgeree, Summerfield Track, Jumbuk, Livingston Road, and Morwell River East Branch Road.
Most of the damage was made to road reserves and fences, but one landslip on Jeeralang Road was so catastrophic that it damaged a house and the road below it.
Landholders along the Boolarra-Mirboo-North Road in Boolarra feared cars could fall off the edge of the road and into an approximate three-metre-deep sinkhole, made worse after heavy spring rain.
A set of temporary traffic lights was installed on either side of the sinkhole that had eaten away a chunk of the road, forcing it into a single lane on a sharp, blind bend.
Local resident Waffa Eid was calling for urgent safety improvements reporting that lights had been intermittently faulty, with both lights were red at the same time, or were flashing amber.
“We fear the whole road will collapse with more rain, a lot of water comes down from the hills, and now the hole is starting to go under the road,” Ms Eid said.
“I’m always worried we will find a car down that hole, but even before it collapses we need to make it safer. The safety guard keeps blowing over and we stop and put it back up.”
Ms Eid said she had reported the concerns to Latrobe City which stated it was not within its responsibility and pawned her off to Regional Roads Victoria.
“But they said they weren’t looking after that road and then pushed me back to council,” she said.
Latrobe City ended up sending machinery to the site to begin preliminary excavation to investigate the extent of the damage.
A council report stressed that steep terrain, complexity of the landslips, and limited road widths mean remediation is complicated and highly specialised.
Council expects it would take about 12 to 18 months to remediate most sites on its list.
