Liverpool Plains Shire Council staring at costly repairs after floods tore up roads; Gap Road to close for major repairs

Liverpool Plains Shire Council mayor Doug Hawkins said he has been left "chasing his tail" trying to keep up with repairing damaged roads and thoroughfares.

"The damage we had repaired has been opened up again," he said.

"All it's done is made the situation worse.

"These [rain] events now are more frequent and they're bigger than ever."

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Wallabadah, Coonabarabran and Gap roads were hit hard by the recent rainfall.

Gap Road is set to close for 10 days for major roadworks between October 3 and October 14.

Every cent of grant funding received for roads so far will be poured into the Gap Road repairs.

The damage and water inundation has been so widespread that during flooding last week, council ran out of road closed signs and were forced to resort to barrier boards.

Council had to call out drivers disobeying road safety warnings.

Cr Hawkins said this rang alarm bells about the state of the shire's roads.

"The fact that we've run out of road closed signs has to be a good indication of the fact that our roads are falling to bits and pieces," he said.

Liverpool Plains Business Chamber president Sally Alden said a good road network was essential to the blooming economic and tourism boosts to the region.

"There's a safety hazard with people being able to travel to our area who might be from the city and unaware of country roads and their dangers," she said.

"There needs to be a fine balance between the initial damage that has been done and continuing repairs."

The damage caused by the recent rainfall has renewed Cr Hawkins call for more than 195 kilometres of the shire's road network to be transferred back to the state government.

Council has applied to hand over the maintenance of Werris Creek road, Wallabadah Road, Lindsays Gap Road, Merriwa Road, Waverly Road and Gap Road to the NSW government.

Cr Hawkins said transferring the roads or getting more money was the only way the roads would be repaired.

"We can never get it all done because we can never get the money," he said.

"I'm calling for a major injection now to repair the roads so they don't get into this state.

"The money we receive just isn't enough."

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