Regional Road Group - November 2012

• The Roads Alliance Board has applied the cut for RRG TIDS based on the past 2 years expenditure performance, plus an RRG’s “TIDS dependency factor”

• Carryovers from 11/12 into 12/13 are being honoured.

• FNQ has the following amounts currently allocated for 12/13 (subject to confirmation by TMR):

o Carryover = $659k

o New Funds = $4.642m

• Unfortunately the $4.642m has to be "squeezed" down to $2,224,425 for 12/13. The obvious question is, "why is our allocation of $4.642m well above our previous annual allocation of $3.493m?" The simple answer is we pushed back a lot of projects from 10/11 and 11/12 into 12/13 to ensure our actual works program reflected the reality of our delivery timeframes and our expenditures were kept up – we weren't really able to deliver our full programs.

• However it is important to remember that in February 2011, following the floods and Yasi, the Roads Alliance Board issued a direction allowing and encouraging RRGs to move the works program around within the 5 years to take into account the impact of reconstruction works – which triggered our action to push projects back.

• Thinking about this, had we ignored that direction and just left the projects in 10/11 and 11/12, we would likely have now been rewarded as all these projects would have been carryovers and honoured. On the flip side our expenditure level would have been markedly lower and the cut to our "new funds" allocation for 12/13 would have been greater, but I have no doubt whatsoever that we would have been better off overall. So ... we have been penalised in effect for doing the right thing, and those RRGs that didn't, have been rewarded! The Roads Alliance Board has been notified of this scenario.

• For 13/14 our annual allocation will be $2,442,549. It jumps up a bit because the $4m statewide for TIDS cycleways has been divvied up to each of the RRGs.

RRG Boundaries / Composition

The Roads Alliance Board is reviewing RRG boundaries and composition, to take effect from 2013/14. A consultation paper was released last week as a starting point for discussion. It contains some possible new boundaries and shows Croydon and Etheridge joining FNQ. The three governing principles behind the review are:

• RRG membership based on voluntary participation from neighbouring councils with a shared interest in jointly setting priorities for the regional road network

• No single-council RRGs

• Where practical, alignment of RRG boundaries with TMR regions.

The Roads Alliance Board has requested comment from RRGs by 17 December 2012. 

Training Courses

The following 2 day IPWEA training courses are being held in Cairns.

• Road Safety Audits on Wednesday-Thursday 7-8 November.

• Investigation & Treatment of Crash Locations on Wednesday-Thursday 12-13 December.

Both courses are being held at the Cairns Local Disaster Coordination Centre, Windarra Street, Woree

A reminder to ensure registrations are submitted directly to IPWEAQ for the Investigation & Treatment of Crash Locations course.

Next Meeting Dates

Please note the Technical Committee meeting has been brought forward a day and relocated from Cooktown to Cairns.

• FNQRRG TC - Wednesday 14 November 2012, Cairns Local Disaster Coordination Centre, Windarra Street, Woree, commencing at 12.30pm 

• FNQRRG - Monday 10 December 2012, Level 3 Committee Room, Cairns Regional Council, Spence Street commencing at 1.30pm following the FNQROC Board Meeting