NSW: Collapsed road not built to standard, corroded: court

AAP General News (Australia)
02-18-2008
NSW: Collapsed road not built to standard, corroded: court

An inquest into the deaths of five people .. killed when a section of the Old Pacific
Highway collapsed north of Sydney last year .. has been told the road had been sinking
for some time.

The inquest at Sydney's Central Local Court's heard from a witness at the scene ..

who says he heard a screech of brakes and saw a car driven by 30-year-old ADAM HOLT disappear
into a hole in the road.

Mr HOLT .. his 29-year-old partner ROSLYN BRAGG .. their daughters two-year-old MADISON
and three-year-old JASMINE .. died along with Ms BRAGG's nine-year-old nephew TRAVIS last
June.

Deputy NSW coroner PAUL MACMAHON has been told the roads authority knew as early as
1984 that corrugated steel pipes supporting the road were corroding .. and failed to act.

Similar culverts collapsed on the NSW south coast between 12 and 15 years after being built.

Gosford City Council assumed responsibility for the road in 1995 .. observing at the
time it might be accepting a liability rather than an asset.

In a memo dated July 2004 the council acknowledged the corrosion.

The hearing continues.

AAP RTV ajc/was/tm

KEYWORD: COLLAPSE (SYDNEY)

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