RESIDENTS have called ‘enough’ after years of pain and destruction on Swan Bay Road.
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The road between the Karuah turnoff and Swan Bay, which also services Moffats Road and Lilleys Road residents, is mostly tar but far too narrow those who use it every day have said.
For the residents of Swan Bay themselves there’s another five kilometres of gravel road with deep potholes.
Broken windscreens and near head-ons are so frightening they say it’s enough make a driver soil themselves. While numerous single vehicle crashes haven’t caused deaths on the lose gravel bends people have been hospitalised, and their cars written-off.
Compounding the issue is a growing number of people who have made the area their home. The fishing huts are disappearing replaced with two-storey homes with views to Tomaree.
Port Stephens Council has defended its road maintenance schedule. It has even brought forward maintenance work to this week when residents said two months was too long to wait.
“There is approximately 60 km of unsealed road in the Port Stephens local government area,” a council spokesman said.
“Council carries out a routine inspection program as well as a routine maintenance grading schedule on unsealed roads to ensure all roads are in a satisfactory condition.
“Most unsealed roads are graded three-to-four times a year, and more often depending on the impact of weather.”
A group of 30 residents from Swan Bay and surrounds gathered last week to air their frustration.
Among them was Wayne Lovett who has had two windscreens broken in two months.
“I know there are other roads that need attention too [but] you ring up council time and again and get nowhere,” he said.
“Really, they’ve been doing the bare minimum here for years and its time we take a stand. They’re building bike paths in Nelson Bay but we can’t get a decent road.”
Residents say it’s high time the road was sealed when the school bus refuses to drive down the gravel stretch because it’s “too rough”.
Swan Bay Road resident Brian Harris said the council had budgeted for a tar upgrade for the road in previous forward works programs but it hadn’t come through.
“At one stage it was just fishing huts here but times change and the road needs change with the times,” he said.
He’s counted 14 crashes in 20 years at the corner of Davis Road.
“If this intersection is not fixed it will lead to serious consequences if not a fatality,” Mr Harris said.
The council spokesman said there were “no immediate plans to seal Swan Bay Road”.
