Regional Road Group - October 2012

RRGs

There is also "talk" to realign RRGs to Transport and Main Road (TMR) regional boundaries and create an RRG for each of the nine TMR regions. I doubt this will fly as there are a couple of examples where this logistically would be extremely difficult and not logical.  Central Queensland would mean Rockhampton, Gladstone etc would end up in an RRG with Diamantina, Boulia etc.  North Queensland would mean Townsville, Hinchinbrook etc would end up in an RRG with Mt Isa, Burke, etc.   South West Queensland would mean Toowoomba, Stanthorpe etc would end up in an RRG with Quilpie, Bulloo etc.  

What is likely to happen however is that single Council RRGs will no longer exist (Rockhampton, Gladstone, Banana, Eastern Downs, Western Downs) and RRGs will be realigned to ensure no overlap occurs across TMR regional boundaries.  In our case that would mean Croydon and Etheridge would likely come into Far North Queensland. The Roads Alliance Board will seek our views on this at the forthcoming RRG Assembly on Thursday 25 October.

FNQRRG Representatives

Bettina Cruise has voluntarily left TMR Local Government Relations branch and consequently the Roads Alliance Project Team.  Michelle Connolly who has been Acting Director in TMR LG Relations for the past 18 months or so will be our new representative.  Ross Kirkman will remain as the Local Government Association Queensland representative.

Transport Infrastructure Development Scheme (TIDS)

As you would probably be aware, State wide TIDS funding has been reduced from $63.3m to $40m per annum which translates to roughly a 37% cut.  Before I go any further, the $63m comprised the following categories:

In the recently released 2012/2013 Queensland Transport & Roads Investment Program (QTRIP), we had an allocation of $15.417 million which sounds great!  

However this would include Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island (ATSI) community TIDS, carryovers, an allocation for Croydon Shire Council and Etheridge Shire Council, and also the old "chestnut" of any allocation for Torres Shire and Torres Strait Island Regional Councils.

So in essence we don't know at this stage what our allocation will be.  Also I do not know at this stage how the reduction directly applies - whether a proportional cut applies across all categories or whether some categories have been cut. Given the discussions in recent months about putting all the TIDS categories into one, I suspect we may be given a total allocation for Roads Alliance TIDS, SafeST and Cycleways TIDS to fit a works program too.  I also do not know the status of ATSI TIDS and the Statewide Capability Development Fund at this stage.

Our previous recurrent funding level was $3.493 million which included any Torres Strait allocations, but excluded the allocation for Croydon and Etheridge as well as ATSI TIDS.  Our SafeST allocation for 2012/2013 is/was approximately $450,000 and we have/had no Cycleways TIDS allocation in 2012/2013.

Apparently at the Roads Alliance Board meeting of 7 September 2012, it was agreed to develop some redistribution scenarios which might lessen the impact of the cuts for some RRGs.  The Board will meet again in mid October and will consider this work then or before, if possible.  Some clear direction is likely to be given at the RRG Assembly which is on Thursday 25 October from 7 to 8.30am (at the tail end of the LGAQ Annual Conference) at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre.  TMR Director General and Roads Alliance Board Chair, Michael Caltabiano, will be speaking at the Assembly.

We obviously will have to commence work shortly on revising our 2012/2013 works program.

LGAQ obviously is strongly advocating a return to normal levels of TIDS funding for 2013/2014, as they should be.

Regional Safety & Development Program (RSDP) & Flood Resilience & Safety Program (FRS)

The RSDP and FRS programs have also been affected by cuts, however the Woobadda Creek and Ootann Road projects are still listed in full in the 2012/2013 QTRIP, so it would appear they are safe.  For your information, the premise of the cuts was that any project not in delivery would be axed.  We do not have any FRS projects as they were limited to NWQ, Outback and SWQ RRGs.

Blackspot

The Blackspot program will continue unaffected.

Regional Airport Development Scheme (RADS)

The $2.9 million RADS has been abolished.

Roads Alliance Tools

On an operational level, I attended a workshop last Friday run by the Roads Alliance Project Team.  The Project Prioritisation Tool has been updated and looks to be a marked improvement, both in ease of use and integrity of the process.  The Project Planning Tool is also complete and looks quite useful – this is the one I have previously spoken about and develops the investment strategy including a useful form of SOI and automates a gap analysis.  The Project Delivery Tool is also just about finished and will be useful as well.

The three tools haven't been officially released by the Roads Alliance yet, however I have an arrangement with Graham Jordan to get copies in the next few weeks and to use and trial them (effectively be a guinea pig!).

I also have been informed the Roads Alliance HUB is alive and running, although no information has come through on that.

Busy times ahead I'm sure!