The roadwork, which runs from the BP service station to the 50km/h sign past Medlyn Street, was supposed to be finished on Friday, February 12, but is still under way due to heavy rain and sub-standard materials.

Middleton Mini Mart owner Linda Blake says she has been so badly affected she is considering closing down her store.

“I haven’t been able to pay myself for the past two weeks. My staff’s wages have to come first. I’m right behind,” Ms Blake said.

“I’ve only just taken over in December. I haven’t been able to buy the right amount of stock. I might as well just shut up shop.

“I’ve lost a few thousand dollars since the roadwork started. It certainly hasn’t been good for business.

“If it had been done in a week I would have been fine. But it’s still not finished.

“Council said the touch football carnival on the weekend would bring plenty of extra business to town, but they’re not looking after the businesses at this end of town.”

Parkes Plumbing owner Col Lucas says his business has been deeply affected by the roadwork, as he said many customers couldn’t get to his business.

“I shut the shop up at 11am last Saturday (February 20) because it was dead. I only took about $300 when I usually take $1000 to $1200. I was down $1500 for the week,” Mr Lucas said.

“I know council has a job to do, but they don’t care about the businesses along here. They should have done it right in the first place. It’s diabolical.”

Scott Page Smash Repairs owner Scott Page is also unimpressed with the roadwork, saying the number of quotes they prepare is down about 60 per cent.

“It’s been quiet since the roadwork was started. We were told it would have been done in a week, but it’s now into its fourth week,” Mr Page said.

“I know they’ve got to fix the road but the cost to our business is horrific.

“We’ve tried to get out and had to wait 20 to 30 minutes to get out because we’ve been stuck in traffic.

“We’re missing a lot of through traffic. If there’s an accident, the car gets towed here, but often they just go somewhere else.

“We just want it done instead of all this mucking around.”

Parkes Shire Council Director of Operations Steve Barry said

council has “absolutely” done as much as it can to prevent such an effect on businesses on this stretch of the Newell Highway.

Mr Barry said a combination of heavy rain plus sub-standard materials have made the project enter its fourth week, when it was supposed to be completed on Friday, February 12.

“Council is always very conscious of the effects that roadwork has on businesses. It is terribly unfortunate,” Mr Barry said.

The Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) has responsibility for the road, but contracts council to carry out repair and maintenance work on it. Council then in turn contracts the work through a tendering system. The work this year was carried out by Downer EDI, a company which recently posted a healthy first-half net profit of $87 million.

Re-constructing the road meant 170mm of the road base, which was established 30 to 40 years ago, had to be replaced with compacted lime and gravel. On top of that has to be placed 50mm of asphaltic concrete.

Heavy rain has fallen in Parkes since the roadwork began, with the town receiving 152.2mm in February, well above the 1890 to 2008 average of just 47.6mm. Mr Barry said the heavy rain on Friday, February 12 meant the work which was scheduled for then had to be put off to Monday, February 15.

The rain then exposed a problem with the quality of the road base, so then extra gravel had to be mixed in. A “hot mix” of asphaltic concrete then had to be added to the road, but it was found that these materials were also inferior.

Although much of the materials were found to be inferior, Mr Barry hasn’t pointed the finger at the contractors, but instead said council will be “sorting out” what went wrong.

“We can’t do a half job. There is no problem with the contractors – it is a poor-quality material,” he said.

“There is constant traffic on this road. Sometimes things like this happen. February is usually a dry time and very hot.”

Mr Barry said work is expected to be finished tomorrow or the next day but noted there is a very strong chance of rain tomorrow.