By Toby Hemmings and Claire Simmonds, ABC
Floodwaters inundating the northern NSW city of Lismore. Photo: AFP PHOTO / NEW SOUTH WALES STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE
Record-breaking flooding created unprecedented traffic chaos on New South Wales roads last week, costing tens of millions of dollars and casting a cloud of uncertainty over the road's flood resilience.
Most notably, flooding closed a 20-kilometre stretch of the Pacific Highway dual carriageway between Coopernook and South Taree for almost five days.
Michael Atkinson was one of the motorists frustrated on Wednesday when he was returning home from Maclean in the Clarence Valley.
The trip, which normally takes about five hours, took five times that long.
"I found out there was a road closure when I got within 10 kilometres of Taree," he said.
"I live in Nelson Bay. It took me 26 hours to get home, driving north, camping in Glen Innes, and then driving all the way inland and up through the Hunter Valley."
According to estimates from MidCoast Council, the financial cost of the Pacific Highway closure was about $29 million, due to diverted traffic and supply routes.
But drivers have told the ABC the impact of the road closures was exacerbated by incorrect and unclear information about what roads were closed and what alternative routes were available.
Stretch of Pacific Highway flooded for five days. Photo: Supplied/ABC News
Cost of resilience
After nearly 30 years of dual carriageway upgrades, the Pacific Highway between Hexham and the Queensland border acts as a major supply route for the entire north coast of NSW.
More than 26,000 vehicles use the Pacific Highway near Taree every day, according to Transport for NSW data, with 80 percent cars and 20 percent trucks.
A 2020 floodplain risk management study, commissioned by MidCoast Council, estimated the cost of closing the Pacific Highway near Taree for just a day would be up to $5.79 million.
The study also looked at raising the section of Pacific Highway that crossed the Manning River as an option to improve flood resilience.
It estimated the upgrade would cost about $134 million, and was not financially viable.
Executive director of operations management with Transport for NSW Craig Mason said flood resiliency was something the organisation would look at across the network.
"Stopping the impacts in the future will require a lot of work and expense," Mason said.
"But we're always looking at how we can make the network more resilient and diversions more efficient.
"With the water levels, particularly through Taree being the highest ever, it's quite difficult to try and build networks that can avoid floods in any circumstance."
Unclear information
Multiple drivers told the ABC issues with the Pacific Highway closure were exacerbated by inconsistent information from navigation apps and LiveTraffic, Transport for NSW's real-time information provider.
LiveTraffic is fed real-time information by road crews dispatched from the Transport Management Centre and emergency services.
A forward command centre was set up in Newcastle during the flood emergency.
But navigation apps were often unclear about which routes were open or closed, leading to people becoming stranded in flood-affected areas.
Over two days, about 20 people arrived in the remote valley community of Killabakh, north-west of Taree, after misdirection by navigational aids.
Killabakh Rural Fire Service senior deputy captain Greg Hale and his team, on stand-by for flood rescues, met the new refugees to the valley.
"Most of them consulted LiveTraffic, which is what you're told to do in emergency situations," Hale said.
"And they were then advised they could come over Comboyne Mountain into Killabakh to get further south in their travels, but Killabakh itself was flooded in.
"The information that was available to them about the way they could get to their destination sent them over the mountain and was certainly inappropriate."
The Rural Fire Service crew enacted the local emergency management plan and opened the community hall as a shelter for those stranded for the night, which quickly turned into two nights.
Jenny Aitchison speaking in Kempsey about the road network. Photo: Supplied/ABC News
Speaking in Kempsey on Monday, Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison said people needed to be mindful when driving in such challenging conditions.
"LiveTraffic doesn't tell anyone to go anywhere," Aitchison said.
"Everyone's doing their best but it's a difficult situation because no matter what somebody saw 10 minutes before they went in to update LiveTraffic, it can change in an instant.
"It's a challenging situation and I'll be looking at what we can do better next time."
- ABC
