'Pain in the neck'; Road closures isolate Robertson

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A large sinkhole appeared on the Illawarra Highway between Moss Vale and Robertson on Tuesday, March 8, after a deluge of heavy rain.

Currently, the road is closed between Sheepwash Road and Pearsons Lane and detours are in place.

Adding to the isolation is the changed traffic conditions on Macquarie Pass, which is currently closed to heavy vehicles.

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Surface damage to the road has led to stop/slow conditions for light vehicles. Traffic is affected in both directions.

Robertson RFS Captain Jon Bracht said despite the poor road conditions and poor weather, the village of Robertson handled the extreme wet weather event well/

"Residents seemed to have handled the eastern low a little bit better this time than what it has in the past," he said.

"I think people are a little bit better prepared and we had more sandbags available and people were able to look after themselves a little bit better."

Jon said the village didn't sustain much damage, except for the roads.

"The road infrastructure through the current possible route, in and out of Robertson been fairly significantly damaged," he said.

President of the Robertson Chamber of Commerce and pharmacist at Robertson Village Pharmacy Tim Hewitt said the road closures were a "pain in the neck".

"People are having to drive all over the countryside to get around," he said.

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"We have had trouble with deliveries. Delivery of stock was about five hours late because the poor truck driver normally comes up Macquarie Pass but had to go on Mount Ousley Rd, Picton Road and got stuck all at the back of Wildes Meadow.

"It's a nightmare.

"The trouble is all these little back roads are just getting smashed up and getting closed one by one. These roads are just not made for heavy traffic and they're all slowly disintegrating."

Tim said the road conditions were adding "hours and hours, kilometres and kilometres of travel."

"All this traffic and the roads just can't cope with it," he said.

"I don't know whether it's of long term neglect of road maintenance or the roads were just never built to carry this sort of traffic, but it certainly shows few flaws in the system."

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