Canberra holiday-makers warned to watch for potholes driving through NSW

As the Christmas and New Years season nears, holiday-makers heading outside of the ACT are being warned to prepare for damaged country roads, with above average spring rainfall in NSW preventing councils from undertaking urgent repairs.

NRMA data has revealed call outs from July to September to some areas of the South Coast for tyre and wheel damage increased 65 per cent when compared to the same period last year. Call outs for the ACT increased by 55 per cent during the same period.

Kim Bevege from Braidwood's Bevege S. Mechanical Repairs said they'd been busier than usual repairing tyre damage for both locals and tourists.

Ms Bevege said work to repair bent rims, suspension damage, and wrecked tyres had increased over the last three or four months.

"A lot of [customers] would say they've hit a pothole. And that's evident when they damage their tyre, rim, or both," she said.

Ms Bevege said the council was doing its best to repair potholes, but recent downpours and hail had created a difficult situation.

"They're in a hard place because obviously when it's raining, you can't really do much to repair them," she said.

The Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council is still repairing roads damaged by flooding in 2020 and 2021.

The coastal road shared with the Eurobodalla Shire Council, Araluen Road, remains closed following a landslide 43-kilometres west of Moruya in November 2020.

Queanbeyan council repair crews were diverted from regular maintenance in the local government area last month to fix damage caused by recent rain.

Mayor Kenrick Winchester told The Canberra Times last month a lot of roads in the region required major reconstruction.

NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said drivers should expect to see maintenance crews out across NSW over the holiday period as councils worked to improve road safety during the drier period.

Mr Khoury said small potholes had become very large potholes and new holes had appeared all over the road network in recent months, with councils unable to keep up with the work required to repair them.

"In addition to potholes, we're seeing absolute structural damage to the whole road network in those areas where there was really heavy flooding," he said.

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Mr Khoury said holiday periods often correlated with increased road accidents, even in non La Nina years, with more people on the roads, fatigue during long journeys and drink driving all playing a part.

"In addition to that this year, people need to be extra careful because of the potholes," he said.

"A lot of them aren't going to be fixed, a lot of them are on high-speed regional roads and you are also likely to see congestion while councils have maintenance crews out there trying to fix them."

Mr Khoury said the best way to avoid an accident over the holiday period was to avoid driving early in the morning or late at night, keep mobile phones out of reach and plan breaks to avoid fatigue.

ACT Policing has this month turned its traffic focus towards impaired driving, conducting more than 1000 breath tests, which detected three drink drivers in one week.

Acting Inspector Ken Williams, Officer in Charge of Road Policing, said police wanted everyone to have an enjoyable and safe festive season.

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