The islands’ successful ‘green seal’ road program has been recognised, along with the council and contract workers who have been carrying out the work.
Redland City Council CEO Bill Lyon and Cr Mark Edwards hosted a special ‘thank you’ barbecue to thank ‘all involved’ at the Macleay Island Community Centre.
And it could be the first of others in the future as we as a community celebrate the contribution the construction workers make to our islands.
Cr Mark Edwards, who pushed for the new cost-saving technique for island roads, says it has so far been an ‘outstanding success’.
“It has far succeeded my expectations, and the support from the residents has been fantastic,” he told The Friendly Bay Islander.
The ‘Green Seal’ program basically puts a two chip bitumen seal over a 100mm compacted road base. They are bordered by grass verge V drainage (swales).
The program is designed for roads that carry minimum traffic, as opposed to major reconstruction for maximum traffic roads constructed on the mainland.
The result in cost is approximately one-fifth of the previous $1million per kilometre.
Under the previous full reconstruction method, it would have been 30 years before all the roads on the Bay Islands were fully sealed.
CEO Bill Lyon put it into perspective when he told the gathering of workers at the barbecue, “so far 16 kilometres of roads have been sealed using this new method on the islands, with the majority of work carried out on Macleay and Russell Islands, as well as Lamb Island.
Roads on Coochiemudlo and North Stradbroke are also ear-marked for the ‘green seal’ method.
Under the current financial year program, Bill Lyon said a further 17 kilometres of island roads would be sealed.
“That leaves a further 71 kilometres of island unsealed roads to go,” he said.
On that basis if council continues to fund the road sealing at its present rate, all the Bay Island roads could be sealed in less than four years. However there are some roads that have major drainage constraints and are not suited to greensealing. In those cases engineering solutions will increase the cost however we can see the light at the end of the tunnel in sealing our roads.
Cr Edwards said " I would also like to thank the SES for cooking the BBQ. The SES do a great job and they cook a mean steak burger."
However, the road sealing program has taken a slightly different direction with roads now chosen on a ‘needs’ basis.
Residents where roads have been sealed were invited to the barbecue, where they also were able to thank the council workers.
“There is more work to be completed on Macleay before the crew moves to Russell Island to continue the sealing on that island.
“It will continue to switch from island to island until all the island gravel roads are sealed,” Cr Edwards added.
• The big green road seal crew with Cr Mark Edwards and CEO Bill Lyon.