Local Roads

A road network of approximately 1700km is repaired and maintained by the MacDonnell Regional Council within its jurisdiction. The network comprises community access roads to highways, internal community roads and outstation access roads. Repairs and maintenance to the road network is funded through the Federal Assistance Grant administered by the Northern Territory Grants Commission. MacDonnell Regional Council employs a grader team with two operators from Papunya community who travel to all communities delivering a great service not just repairing and maintaining our roads, but also preparing sports grounds and cutting fire breaks.

One of the roles of the Civil Works team is to manage the local area traffic management within all communities. This involves installation and maintenance of speedbumps, roundabouts, bollards, street lighting to address any shortcutting and safety concerns. A recent major road upgrade was undertaken for the 7.5km access road between the Lasseter Highway and Imanpa giving the community safe year-round access. The work completely reformed and rebuilt the access road lifting it up to 300mm in some sections so extensive drainage could be completed to ensure all weather access. The upgrade was funded though the Federal Government’s Roads to Recovery grant program and supplemented with a Federal Assistance Grant.