Unsealed Roads

Renewal of unsealed roads is referred to as 're-sheeting' and involves:

• clearing and re-forming of the open drains,
• re-shaping the road,
• placing new gravel on the road, usually to about 100mm thickness. 

The gravel used to re-sheet our roads is either Gherang gravel (orange gravel) or crushed rock (blue metal).

A mixture of both gravels is more commonly used now, layering one product on top of the other. This provides a better year round surface.

Find out which unsealed roads are due for re-sheeting

The key findings from the last unsealed road review included:

• Council is meeting the response time frame for unsealed road repairs, as outlined in the Road Management Plan.
• Community expectations for road repair is higher than the requirements in the Road Management Plan.
• There are four options recommended in the review from no cost through to the high-cost option that is costed at approximately $5 million per annum with a one off $7.7 million spend.
• Council will commence implementing the no cost option initiatives which focus on efficiency and productivity improvements.
• Council is having success in renewing unsealed roads with a mix of materials which includes Gherang gravel and crushed rock as this binds together for longer. Using crushed rock in potholes on wet roads is delivering better functionality and durability for the same reason.
• Increased adverse weather events and limited resources impact Council’s ability to react to unscheduled road repairs in a timely manner, for example, for natural disasters like floods or bushfires. These impacts are expected to become more frequent.
• Residents have mixed opinions on whether they preferred their local unsealed roads to be sealed or left unsealed. Half of the respondents from areas surrounding Moriac and Winchelsea would prefer their roads to be sealed. This dropped to 19% of respondents from Aireys Inlet and surrounds.
• When benchmarked against other similar Councils and statewide results, Surf Coast Shire satisfaction ratings for unsealed roads are higher. Surf Coast Shire was rated 48 in the community satisfaction survey in 2024 compared to 34 for large rural councils and 36 statewide. However, it is Council’s lowest rated service and almost two-thirds of respondents in the unsealed road review were dissatisfied with the current condition of unsealed roads.
• Large expenditure in the options outlined in the review will place pressure on Council’s finances and need to be considered in future budgets as any increased expenditure on unsealed roads will impact other services or programs.

There was a lot of community interest during the engagement phase:

• 798 people completed the survey.
• 244 people attended drop in sessions held in Aireys Inlet, Moriac, Connewarre and Winchelsea.
• 23 business representatives completed the survey.
• 251 comments were posted on the interactive map on Council’s website.

From the review, 24 initiatives were identified that could improve service delivery and the condition of unsealed roads across the no cost, low cost, medium cost and high cost options.

Council endorsed the implementation of no cost option to provide immediate improvement to the condition of unsealed roads. This can be achieved by grading approximately 140km more of unsealed roads throughout the year through roster changes, more proactive and efficient programming of where grading occurs plus placing greater emphasis on road material age in assessing the condition of roads and when they are renewed.  

The options identified that generate new costs for Council will be considered through the budget process for 2025-26 and subsequent years.

Read the full report(PDF, 11MB)