Road management

As a fire prevention measure, Council conducts an annual rural roadside slashing program(PDF, 133KB) at the end of spring and beginning of the summer. There may be follow up slashing mid way through the summer as well.

Contact Council’s Customer Service team on 5261 0600 if you have any questions about the program.

We work hard to keep our roads as close as possible to their original condition. For gravel roads this is generally re-sheeting the road with new gravel, and for sealed roads may involve resealing the road surface or reconstructing the road if there is pavement failure. The program does not include any upgrade to the road, such as sealing a gravel road or widening a narrow sealed road.View Council's Road Renewal Program.

During the summer period some residents are affected by dust generated by traffic travelling along gravel roads and streets.

To help reduce this nuisance, Council may provide assistance to those most severely affected by arranging for the application of a dust suppressant to unsealed roads near homes based upon an assessment process annually.

2023 Dust Suppression Program

The below map shows approximate road segments due to receive dust suppressant in the 2023 dust suppression program. Exact locations may change. Please click the icon at the top left of the map to expand and see specific sites by clicking on the road names on the left toolbar.

You can also view the program details on the below Excel Spreadsheet or PDF summary:

FINAL-Surf-Coast-Shire-2023-Dust-Suppression-Program_Webpage.xlsx(XLSX, 19KB)

(XLSX, 19KB)FINAL-Surf-Coast-Shire-2023-Dust-Suppression-Program_Webpage-PDF-Version.pdf(PDF, 2MB)

Please note, should your road nomination be included in the 2023 program, the treatment will be applied mid-late December.

The dust suppression treatment is typically not applied before early to mid-December as it only last three months. If we were to apply it earlier then residents wouldn’t have the treatment on the roads for the worst part of summer, being in February.

The annual program is undertaken in late December to optimise the effectiveness of the dust nuisance over the summer period. Council currently nominates a Dust Suppression allocation annually throughout the budget process. The amount allocated to the program is not known until the budget is adopted by Council.

In addition to works funded by Council, there are several roads that are treated through a “private works” agreement.

How to apply for your road to be considered for the dust suppression program

Road nominations for the 2023 program have now closed. Applications for the December 2024 dust suppression program will open on Monday 29 January 2024.

When will we carry out the assessment?

In November each year Council assesses all requests received, taking into consideration the volume, type and speed of passing traffic, and proximity and number of homes close to the road before finalising the dust suppression program for the coming summer.

All residents who have made an application will be advised whether their request has been successful.

If you want to talk to us about your application or want to talk to an officer before making a submission, you can contact us via our Lodge a Request form or alternatively you can contact Customer Service on 5261 0600.

What is the review process?

Each application site is assessed based on the traffic characteristics by a council engineer to determine if the impact is significant enough to qualify for treatment and be included the program. 

General rules of thumb

There are some general rules you can apply to know how your situation might be considered such as:

• If traffic volumes are more than 50 vehicles per day
• The proximity of homes in rural areas to the road is less than 50 m
• If there are multiple home impacted ( a cluster of houses on the section of road)