Lithgow Council is to seek an urgent ‘please explain’ from the Roads and Traffic Authority over just what went wrong with the rapid failure of a newly reconstructed section of the Great Western Highway at Tunnel Hill.

The section of highway was reconstructed just a few months ago but almost immediately began literally falling apart.

This has prompted a wave of complaints from motorists and from residents who use the highway on a daily basis.

What was described by one nearby resident as a ‘fiasco’ was raised as a matter of urgency during Question Time at this week’s meeting of Lithgow Council.

Cr Brian Morrissey said Council; had good reason to be concerned at the rapid deterioration of the new Tunnel Hill roadwork.

“Many hundreds of thousands of dollars were expended on that stretch and it is falling apart everywhere,” he said.

“There has been a lot of taxpayer’s money wasted there; if the job was done with Council money we’d certainly be hearing about it.”

Cr Morrissey said that Council should demand a report from the RTA through State Member Gerard Martin about what went wrong ‘and why it’s falling apart’.

Deputy Mayor Cr Barbara Moran supported this submission but said there were also problems of traffic movement on the second stage of the Tunnel Hill roadworks which is now under way.

She claimed the deviation in place at the roadworks was ‘sub standard and dangerous’.

“There are also bad potholes at the bottom of the hill and the situation out there is particularly bad at night,” Cr Moran said.

Mayor Neville Castle said that the situation was particularly confusing for anyone not familiar with the road.

He said motorists were being funneled to the other side of the road and were perilously close to the barricades in place as traffic controls.

The conditions at Tunnel Hill have also resulted in a flood of calls to the Mercury Office from concerned citizens.

One caller said yesterday he could not understand why the RTA had not maintained the same high standard that had been achieved on the western side of Tunnel Hill.

“On the western side they put down a concrete base and there have been no problems for years,” he said.

“On the downhill section on the eastern side the bitumen had been laid over gravel road base and was falling part almost immediately.”

He said it appeared to have been penny pinching that had backfired.

Residents living close to the roadworks have also complained about vibrations caused when trucks encounter the uneven joint between the old and new sections of highway.