Port Fairy-Warrnambool Rail Trail begins controversial $600,000 resurfacing

The resurfacing works started on August 14 and are expected to take around two months, with the trail ready for action well before the summer holiday peak season.

The works have been driven and coordinated by the Port Fairy-Warrnambool Rail Trail Committee, and secretary Ian Bodycoat said it was good to see some action.

"Work has started at Lanes Lane, Illowa this week and will extend all the way through to Port Fairy," Mr Bodycoat said.

Moyne Shire Council provided the funds to resheet the 24km of track despite the fact the rail trail wasn't a council asset. Normally such a large amount of money would have to be allocated through a formal tender process, but because the funding was provided as a grant the rail trail committee was free to select its own contractor.

The vote to provide the grant in September 2022 passed by a single vote, with three councillors describing it as a waste of council money.

A technical report by council officers had recommended against using the surface the rail trail committee had chosen for the project because of potential durability problems.

"Council does not recommend this treatment based on independent technical reports for fear that the proposed treatment has the potential to result in sections failing, reduction of lifecycle and cost implications to undertake sealing... (and) with only 100mm depth and no sub base preparation the proposed works will not be appropriate for sealing a future date," the report said.

Cr James Purcell asked how his colleagues could dismiss the officers' recommendation. "I seriously cannot support it (approving the funding)," he said.

The technical report also said the new surface wouldn't be suitable for sealing with bitumen at a later date. Cr Purcell said it would make more sense to seal the surface permanently with bitumen now rather than opting for an interim solution.

Mr Bodycoat said sealing the whole length of the trail would cost millions of dollars.

"Basically, the money wasn't there to do that," he said.

"Clearly the ideal would be to seal the whole section with bitumen or spray seal, but we didn't have the money and something needed to be done."

But he also said the surface the committee had chosen should last at least a decade.

"There are too many variables to give an exact estimate. We get cattle on the trail and hoons roaring up and down on motorbikes and even cars, but we should get at least 12 years out of it," he said.

Mr Bodycoat said the first step was to grade the trail to remove grass and weeds and restore a level surface.

"Then they are just putting on four to six inches of limestone, which is then watered down and rolled and the lime within the limestone sets to a hard finish," he said.

"The original trail that was put down by Moyne Shire used what we call a fairly sandy limestone which didn't bind very well, but even then it lasted 12 years."

Mr Bodycoat said sections of the trail would have to be closed as works progressed towards Port Fairy because of the danger posed by trucks and other equipment. He said there would be clear detour signs and alternate routes marked out.