Moves to reinstate Highways Department depots across the South East region face some major hurdles according to a senior State Government bureaucrat.
Advocates for reinstatement such as Wattle Range Mayor Des Noll believe local crews staffed by State Government employees would be better placed to respond to road maintenance tasks such as potholes.
However, Department of Transport and Infrastructure chief executive John Whelan signalled it would be difficult to implement.
According to Mr Whelan, the Labor State Government was undertaking a review of the road maintenance contracts awarded to private contractors across South Australia by the previous Liberal State Government.
Mr Whelan said the South East contract ran for seven years.
He told ABC Radio the previous Highways Department personnel in the Limestone Coast had either retired or found other employment.
The departmental chief said the Highways Department had disposed of the plant and equipment it had in the South East.
Under his watch, Mr Whelan said the new Labor State Government was spending significant sums on infrastructure in this region such as $10m on the Beachport jetty upgrade.
Mr Whelan has first-hand knowledge of the region as he is a former Highways Department regional manager based at Naracoorte.
Many of the pertinent points made by Mr Whelan had earlier been raised at the August monthly meeting of Wattle Range Council.
Mayor Noll had introduced a notice of motion about the reinstatement of Highways Department depots.
After 20 minutes of debate, the matter was adjourned until the September monthly meeting pending further information.
Council chief executive Ben Gower anticipated the cost of paying out the private maintenance contractor could be prohibitive.
He said such contracts were typically long-term as the contractor needed to purchase plant and equipment.
Quoting from his previous working life in commercial aviation, he said the aircraft maintenance contracts ran for 10 years.
Mr Gower stressed the importance of such preventative maintenance as re-sheeting and re-seals.
Engineering services director Peter Halton said the previous Liberal State Government had seen a financial benefit in privatising road maintenance.
Councillor John Drew referred to his past experience in the health and education sectors and urged the council to give the State Government a broad brief with respect to road maintenance.
