Imagine 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools of flood debris – that’s the amount of material that has been taken from the Naughtons Gap Road landslip and used on the Northern Rivers Rail Trail.
Instead of the soil and vegetation from the landslip going to landfill, 12,000 tonnes of the material has been repurposed on the rail trail.
The material has been placed along both sides of the rail trail to give stability and improve safety for cyclists.
This collaborative effort between the NSW Environment Protection Authority and Richmond Valley Council has saved $2.4million.
NSW EPA executive director of operations Jason Gordon said the collaboration is a great example of what can be achieved when we all work together.
“Severe weather events often generate significant waste volumes and it can be challenging and costly to clean-up,” Mr Gordon said.
“Rather than this material being dumped into landfill we’ve come up with a joint solution by reusing it to improve an important community and tourism asset.
Richmond Valley mayor Robert Mustow said right from the word go the EPA engaged with the council to come up with positive solutions.
“If this material ended up in landfill it would have cost $2.4 million. This huge saving is fantastic for our community seeing important repair work done while enabling us to upgrade infrastructure,” Mr Mustow said.
The EPA is continuing to work with Council on multiple flood recovery projects to minimise material being sent to landfill.
Naughtons Gap Road has been closed since 2021 and is set to reopen next month as part of the $15.8 million Betterment of Naughtons Gap Road project. The project to repair the road and make it more resilient to future natural disasters was funded jointly by the Australian and NSW Governments.
Here’s a story about when Naughtons Gap Road will open.
This information was provided by the EPA.