Restoration Work Begins on Cornwallis Road This Month
Restoration efforts for Cornwallis Road and its drainage network are set to begin this month. The project aims to address the failures in the drainage system and to reconstruct a section of Cornwallis Road that has been lost.
The initial damage at Cornwallis can be traced back to the flood that struck the Hawkesbury River in March 2021, which severely impacted the drainage system originally implemented in the 1970s. Additional flooding in 2022 exacerbated the situation, leading to further erosion and the breaching of the riverbank, creating a small bay and resulting in the loss of a 180-meter stretch of Cornwallis Road.
While individual landowners have taken measures to restore their properties affected by the flooding, the local Council has collaborated with the NSW Reconstruction Authority, NSW Public Works, and the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to engineer a robust solution for the drain and road restoration.
Currently, site establishment works are in progress, with drainage operations scheduled to kick off later this month. A total of 250 precast concrete stormwater box culverts have been delivered and are being stored on-site, prepared for installation.
Once the installation of the stormwater culverts and backfill is finalized, the permanent Bakers Lagoon flood mitigation outlet into the Hawkesbury River will be reinstated. Subsequently, the reconstruction of approximately 250 meters of Cornwallis Road will commence, returning it to its original condition.
The entire project is expected to take around 30 weeks, with an anticipated completion date in September 2025, contingent on weather conditions. The initiative is fully funded by the Australian and NSW Governments through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, and the Council has appointed NSW Public Works as the project delivery partner.
