Council roads pilot project lost to annals of time Myall Coast Myall Coast by News Of The Area - Modern Media - June 28, 2023June 28, 2023 The sign on Tuloa Avenue proudly proclaims participation in the project. PROBLEMS plaguing our roads may have been solved more than a decade ago, an investigation by News Of The Area has revealed. The addition of recycled glass to the ingredients used to make road surfaces 12 years ago seems to have worked well locally, given they are still performing. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au Back in 2011, under the former Great Lakes Council, two roads became part of the “Recycled Glass in Roads Project”: Glen Ora Road at Nabiac, and Tuloa Avenue at Hawks Nest. Locals suspect more road sections are part of the project, however only these sections can be empirically confirmed, given the astounding dearth of reliable information. Tuloa Avenue still has the sign, aged and grotty with a dozen years of exposure, proudly proclaiming the stretch’s participation in the project, between the Mirreen Street intersection and The Anchorage turnoff. “A total of 100 tonnes of glass was used at the two sites – equivalent to 550,000 stubbies – preventing it from ending up in landfill and avoiding the mining of virgin sand,” says the Tuloa sign inscription. Council’s recent re-surfacing of The Anchorage apparently used the standard tar-and-gravel approach, leaving the ‘new’ Anchorage section rough and bumpy, the tar sticking to tires and undercarriages. There have been no reported problems with the relatively smooth, and quiet, Tuloa segment, just metres uphill. That section has not required resurfacing in the past 12 years, despite carrying all of the traffic that hits The Anchorage, and its surface remains smooth, clear and crack free. It would seem that the glass-in-roads project was a total success, recycling and re-using to create a useful public roadway, 100-per-cent effective . . . leading many people to question why council has not used the same method in roads projects since. When asked directly by local Gordon Grainger about the glass-in-roads concept at the MidCoast Council’s Community Conversations on 6 June, MCC’s head engineer Rob Scott stated, “I am not aware of that”. NOTA asked MCC two weeks ago about the glass-in-roads project, but has yet to receive any acknowledgement. By Thomas O’KEEFE Smooth surfaces with no bumps or cracks – looking north up Tuloa Ave. A relatively quiet, low-maintenance drive – looking south down Tuloa Ave, towards The Anchorage turnoff.
