Kangaroo Island Council has approximately 1150km of unsealed roads to grade each year.
Individual roads are graded at different frequencies depending on their location (township or rural) and their traffic volumes. Council's Infrastructure and Asset Management Plan (IAMP) states the standard for grading frequency from high volume roads being graded at least 4 times per year to very low volume roads being graded once per year. This allows Council to maintain the network to the current standard within the allocated budget. Informal accesses on road reserves are not maintained through this program. More details on the road classifications can be found in the IAMP.
Based on the IAMP standards, the following grading programs have been developed:
Within the program there are some months that contain more grading and some months that have less. This is intended to ensure work is prioritised with the weather and allows the graders to perform other works including resheeting, mitre drain maintenance and sealed road shoulder grading.
In order to make the most efficient use of resources, roads scheduled to be graded are inspected prior to grading. If the road is in a suitable condition, it will not be graded, the grader operator will make a note as to the condition of the road and move onto other works.
Although every effort is made to adhere to this grading program, in some instances this is not always possible. Wet weather, unforeseen circumstances and major storm events may redirect staff and resources from the grading program. Council will return to the program as soon as possible after these instances.