Wallace Rockhole access road upgrade
Wallace Rockhole access road revitalised
The entrance to Wallace Rockhole community has been revitalised with a new access road and floodway.The road turns off from Larapinta Drive and stretches 18.5km, 108km west of Alice Springs, suffered extensive damage due to a monsoonal event in the area earlier in 2010.After receiving a request from the Local Board to repair the road, an application was approved by the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) to provide additional funds to repair the damage. The project involved extensive drainage repairs including construction of table drains, offlets, catch drains and gravel re-sheeting.Felicity Wall, Manager Infrastructure and Civil works said “The change in our climate conditions over that last year has caused significant challenges for our road network. On frequent occasions, remote roads such as Wallace Rockhole have been impassable and communities have been cut off from one another, food and supplies”.“There is a real importance in developing the style of roads that can withstand our conditions which the revitalisation of the access road and floodway (type F1) has done while complying with current engineering and NT Government standards”.After 12 months in the planning and design phase the construction commenced in October 2010 and was estimated to take 8 weeks, however the continual rainfall throughout the construction process resulted in some delays. The road construction was completed in early January with the floodway completed in mid January 2011 and costing just under $500,000.Wallace Rockhole has a population of 105 and is located 108km west of Alice Springs.MacDonnell Shire service area is situated in the southern section of the Northern Territory and our land mass spans over 268,887km2. We deliver services to the residents of 13 remote communities and numerous outstations.