THE Mornington Peninsula Shire council has welcomed a $2.19m Disaster Ready Fund grant from the federal government to contribute to remediation and protection works for the Mount Martha landslip. Council is also contributing $2.19m to this project. The project will reinstate a local access road after it collapsed and slid onto The Esplanade beneath it on 29 September 2020 (Landslip closes Esplanade, The News 5/10/2020).
At the time, the collapse was blamed on stormwater run off and saw an estimated 30 tonnes of material and vegetation dislodge on the slope above the Esplanade, between Ellerina Road and Bradford Road. Works to provide temporary access to a property cut off by the landslip were undertaken in December 2020 as the shire worked with the Victorian Department of Transport to make the site safe and investigate the best means to remediate the site.
A statement from the shire said “after lengthy negotiations, the landslip works were planned to commence in the first half of 2023 under a joint co-funded arrangement between the shire and state government Department of Transport and Planning. “Unfortunately funding was withdrawn and despite the shire advocating for it to be reinstated the funding was unable to be recovered. Regrettably, the shire was left with no alternative but to temporarily pause the project until alternative funding measures became available.”
It is believed that the federal government funding will allow work to begin on a permanent fix for the effected area. Works will include the stabilisation of the embankment and protect from future slippage onto the main road. Construction of engineered retaining walls are expected to further reduce future risk to the area.
“With a $2m shire commitment to contribute to these works, it has been disappointing that through our best efforts, we couldn’t secure a fair share of state funding to start the project, “ said shire mayor Cr Simon Brooks “We are delighted we’ve been successful with this important grant application, and I thank our Mount Martha residents for their advocacy efforts, the federal government for acknowledging the importance of this work and Emergency Management Victoria for helping to secure the grant. “Like us, I know the residents will be relieved that the works can finally start.”
First published in the Mornington News – 10 September 2024
