TRANSPORT industry stalwart Graeme Burke has called on the State Government to engage contractors to fix the region's roads, which he says are in a "diabolical state".
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Access to Sydney was all but severed three weeks ago when heavy rain caused parts of the Great Western Highway and Bells Line of Road to fail.
Less than 12 months earlier, it was a similar scenario as Bells Line was closed following landslides and the Great Western Highway couldn't cope with the traffic load.
Mr Burke said our roads and main highways at the present moment "are in an appalling state of affairs".
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"When they [sub-contractors] repair these roads, they repair them properly and they don't 'Band-Aid' fix them," he said.
He said staff employed by the RMS were akin to "Barry the handyman, with all the gear but no idea".
"Our [tax] money is being squandered. The road from Bathurst to Dubbo is absolutely appalling; the road from Bathurst to Young down through that Olympic Way, it's a national disgrace.
"Everything they do is a Band-Aid solution. Look at the money the state and federal government take in our petrol tax.
"Look at what we've got to show for it ... just nothing.
"And let me tell you, the so-called tunnel [under Blackheath and Mount Victoria] is 15 years away.
"It is nearly 35 years since they started the duplication [of the Great Western Highway] by putting dual lanes in at the bottom of Lapstone Hill. Can you tell me that the RMS or whatever it was didn't stop to think ... what happens when we get to the marked tree, this side of Katoomba, where the dual lanes finish?"
He said the NSW Government should "get the contractors in, that's what's happening in Western Australia".
"The problem with the RMS is there is no accountability," he said.
"They come in, fix the job, three weeks later it's a diabolical mess and they come back again and do it again.
"Have a guess who pays for it? The taxpayer."
Mr Burke said he also doesn't buy the argument the damage has occurred due to a one-in-100-year flood.
"It's the neglect over the last 30 years," he said.
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