Roads to Recovery
The Australian Governments Roads to Recovery (R2R) program has become an essential element in local government's ability to maintain and upgrade the local roads network. It is an outstanding example of a partnership between the national and local government to provide direct funding to local communities.
Australia's local road network consists of around 680,000 km of road and related infrastructure, such as bridges, earthworks and road signage. Local roads link our homes to our schools and shops, they take us to arterial roads and national highways. In regional areas, they also link entire communities.
Local roads are owned and maintained by local government. The cost of this maintenance is immense and is met from rates and funding from state and federal governments. Over the years, the amount of funding available to local government has not kept pace with the cost of maintaining local roads to acceptable standards. Much local road infrastructure is now reaching the end of its economic life and its replacement cost cannot be met by local government alone.
In recognition of the growing backlog in local road maintenance, the Federal Government established the Roads to Recovery Program, which has had two phases:
The first R2R program provided $1.2bn between February 2001 and June 2005.
The R2R program was of such importance to local government, ALGA, in association with its member associations, conducted a strong and focussed Renew R2R campaign during 2002 and 2003 to have the program renewed beyond June 2005.
This culminated in the Australian Government announcing in January 2004 that, as part of the new AusLink initiative, a new R2R program will provide a further $1.2bn over the four years from July 2005 to June 2009.
Both R2R programs have a strong rural and regional focus, with around $850m from each program being spent in these areas. This much needed funding has helped local government begin to address the backlog of local road maintenance, improving safety, transport efficiency and stimulating economic development across the country.
A key success factor is a simple administrative system which allows the maximum funding to go to roadworks, as determined by local councils - who know local transport needs and priorities. R2R is jointly administered by local councils and DOTARS.
