Flood events are the most expensive type of natural disaster in Australia with losses affecting agriculture, business, key ecosystems, and infrastructure, not to mention the emotional and physical costs to those personally affected.
South-East Queensland is regularly impacted by flood events. This has put considerable pressure on local governments with staff and resources stretched to the limit to restore flood damaged roads and transport networks (vital for supply to regional economies).
GenEng Solutions was initially engaged by both the Lockyer Valley Regional Council (LVRC) and the Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC) after the major 2011 floods to assist with emergency flood repairs and rebuilding after this catastrophic event. Since then, we have been re-engaged following the more recent flood events in 2020, 2021 and early 2022.
Approach
Delivering these programs involves:
- Liaising with Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) on Council’s behalf to ensure that compliance with all legislation and guidelines are met
- Emergency damage inspections and logging defects
- Collating submissions for Reconstruction of Public Assets funding
- Managing the delivery of the repair works
- Reporting to QRA
Challenges
Concurrent events have necessitated repairing multiple sites multiple times. Due to the high frequency of the flooding events, the public has been understandably distressed and frustrated over delays in completion of repair works. GenEng staff have assisted Council to address these concerns and keep the public informed of updates. Due to Australia-wide material shortages caused by the COVID pandemic, there have been difficulties procuring materials for the works. To prevent supply delays we have changed our procurement practices taking into consideration the long lead-times for delivery of materials.