2022
Incorporating
Wednesday, July 19 2023
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STILL GOT THE BLUES MT Buller launched the all new ‘Alpine Aurora’ light and sound experience on Saturday night to much fanfare. Full story on page 5. PHOTO: Tony Harrington
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FEEDING THE HUNGRY
Pages 15-18
A hole lot of trouble THE state of Mansfield’s regional roads has been a hot topic in the community over the past months, with numerous complaints about potholes, ruts and damaging conditions aired in community forums for some time. As the wet weather continues to dump idealistic snow on the mountain, more roads are falling into disrepair, with mechanics recording an increase in the number of damaged vehicles taken in. Robert Heaney, who runs Mansfield Tyrepower,
Beat the
“Prior to the school holiAll roads leading g to Mansfield have p potholes p popping pp g tyres y days, we would see damaged BY SAMUEL O’BRIEN sobrien@ nemedia.com.au
has noticed a significant increase, especially over the school holidays. “Over the last six months, we have seen more vehicles with damaged tyres or damaged rims from the potholes in the area,” he said. “Over the last two weeks due to the ski season and the holidays we have had an
abundance of people come in with damaged tyres, damaged wheels and broken wheels. “It has become a daily thing.” The increased demand for replacement parts has also impacted turnaround times for cars, especially for parts for newer vehicles. “We see a lot of European vehicles in at the moment and they had different tyre sizes,” Mr Heaney said. “I’ve got two cars at the
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moment that I’m waiting on brand new wheels to turn up for. “One of them has a three month wait for the parts to come out of Germany because there is no stock in Australia and it is a brand new vehicle. “Visitors take [the longer wait times] in shock because a lot of them are hoping to get things fixed straight away and it mucks up their holiday. “There have been times when vehicles have been
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taken back to Melbourne on tow trucks or people have had to make their own way home, leaving their vehicle here and picking it up at a later date.” While visitors have seen the brunt of the impacts of potholes recently, Mr Heaney says locals are being affected more on average. “The potholes have been around for quite a while but as the road conditions get worse; the amount of people that come in or contact us has increased.
wheels from locals quite often. “What I’m hearing is that the highway down to Melbourne is quite atrocious and causing a lot of damage.” Mr Heaney says that newer cars have lower profile tyres and are getting damaged more quickly. “A low profile tyre doesn’t give much cushion when you hit a pothole or a damaged road,” he said. ■ Continued page 3
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