Maintenance works – Pyrenees Shire Council
While many Councils expend a great deal of effort in prioritising their renewal works programs, far fewer Councils seem to devote the same effort to prioritising their maintenance works activities.
Given the need for a greater focus on maintenance in times of natural disasters and in times of fiscal restraint, Pyrenees Shire
Council face many issues “post the floods”. The following outlines the way forward for the Pyrenees Shire Council

LESSONS LEARNT FROM UNEXPECTED EVENTS
Introduction
Pyrenees Shire is located in the Central West of Victoria. It sits between Ballarat , Ararat, Maryborough and St. Arnaud.
Some very good wines are produced in the Pyrenees region and it is also a very productive agricultural region covering 3,500 square kilometers.
The shire takes its name from the ranges in the north, named by
Major Mitchell in 1836 as they reminded him of the Pyrenees in
Europe.
North of the Pyrenees Ranges there is a warmer, drier climate, with rainfall of about 650 millimeters a year. South of the Pyrenees Ranges is a cooler, wetter climate with rainfall in excess of 750mm per year.

Four major highways run through the region.
The Western Highway, through Beaufort, is the main road route from Melbourne to Adelaide and Perth.
The Sunraysia Highway runs through the north of the Shire to
Mildura, connecting with the Western Highway at Ballarat.
The Pyrenees Highway runs centrally through the Shire, east to west from Castlemaine , through Maryborough to Ararat.
The Southern section is serviced by the Glenelg Highway linking Melbourne with south-western Victoria.

Population
Area
Sealed road length
Unsealed gravel road length
Bridges
Major Culverts
6,388
3,500 sq kms
708 kms
1292 kms
164 (did have)
105 (did have)

The Victorian Floods
September 5 th 2010 storm event.
In a typical 1-100 year event, over 13 hours, rainfall is calculated at
7.8mm/hr .
Pyrenees Shire experienced 250mm of rain falling over a 13hr period, with an average 19.5mm/hr.
This event caused $4.8million damage to assets
18 Th December 2010 storm event.
We had not finished assessing the damage from the December 2010 event when a 5 day storm event occurred, peaking on January 14 th 2011
At the peak of the storm 82.5 mm fell in 1 hour and on the 14 th January a total of 274mm fell in 8 hours. This event caused in excess of $22 million worth of damage to Pyrenees Assets

Extent
• Over 4154 flood defects identified on Roads, Bridges & Major Culverts
• 1134 defects were identified where trees were uprooted or fallen limbs or widowmakers .
These were assessed as impeding assets performance or potential risk to workcrew safety.

Elmhurst Glenpatrick Road Bridge

Elmhurst Glenpatrick Road Bridge

Landsborough Elmhurst Road Bridge.

Then the handrail dropped 843mm in Jan 2011

Mt Emu Settlement Road Bridge

Mt Emu Settlement Road Bridge

Mt Emu Settlement Road Bridge

Jones Road Major Culvert

Jones Road Major Culvert

Burrumbeet-Hillcrest Road Culvert

Toppers Lane

Ferntree Gully Road

Hillcrest Road

Damage structures
6 bridges, 15-20 major culverts, heaps of minor culverts
Damage related to maintenance?
Could the extent of damage have been minimised by more effective maintenance processes ?
Some Yes, some maybe , but for this size event most probably not. In smaller, isolated storm event, well maintained assets would definitely lessen the impact .
Pyrenees now undertaking a review and rethinking maintenance practices.
Improve maintenance activities ….lessen the exposure to risk

Response
Council is a participant in STEP and aims to achieve “Core Competency” under the National Asset Management Assessment Framework.
A Key NAMAF element is to have adopted AMPs in the major categories.
Pyrenees now have AMP’s for roads, buildings and structures, bridges and major culverts with improvement actions clearly documented for each category of asset.
Our response to maintenance post floods will be to ;
• Review maintenance processes (AMP content follows IIMM layout)
• Review field maintenance and planning process
• Develop a Defect inspection manual
• Come up with a priority for maintenance works
• Review response times
• Standards and specifications
• Understand maintenance costs

Some other considerations
Relationship with condition surveys. Condition level assessed against defects/maintenance inspections….does it match your gut feeling
Improve the qualifications and skills of inspectors
Work flow/conducting the inspections
Defects and maintenance items to be digitally recorded – no paper
Cost implications (extra cost of conducting inspections, extras cost by identifying work!!)

What have we come up with
Regional Example
Excellent work by Ballarat City - Draft Level 1Inspections - Bridge
Manual. Provides excellent guide.
• Sharing of documents and ideas through Central Highlands Asset
Management Group.
• Program maintenance and condition inspections frequencies with a view to accommodate longer term forecasts (Bridges 5-4 years)
• Look at how we can minimise risk by undertaking maintenance activities
• Take out any guess work in council operations by establishing processes and practices
• Proper maintenance extends life not only against regular wear and tear but can also offer some protection against bigger events
• Consequence of not doing maintenance (maintenance does not cost, it pays)
• Need to extend this thinking across all assets

Summary
The Floods, while devastating and an extreme event, they created a realisation of the potential improvements in our
AM maintenance practices, procedures and planning.
Council must continually apraise its maintenance priorities.
Avoid wobbling plates …keep things spinning nicely

THANKYOU