The councils in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, could be facing a backlog of approximately $3.2bn in road maintenance funding, according to a report by the National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA).

NRMA has called for urgent action to assist the councils to carry out repairs and upgrades on the state’s roads.

The report showed that the figure has dropped to $600m since the NRMA’s first report compiled last year. However, NSW councils remain burdened by a road infrastructure backlog of more than $3bn.

"Upgrading dangerous roads made a huge difference to the road toll."

NRMA president Kyle Loades said: "Upgrading dangerous roads made a huge difference to the road toll.

"Recent upgrades to the Princes Highway north of Jervis Bay have resulted in a 90% decrease in injury crashes, so we know fixing regional roads will save lives.

"The damage caused by last month’s devastating ‘storm of the century’ will impact heavily on road surfaces and exacerbate councils’ already hefty maintenance backlog.

"It’s not just regional councils that are finding it difficult to maintain their roads. Our report shows that Greater Sydney area metropolitan councils are also feeling the pinch."

According to the report, around 1,480 people were killed and 100,413 injured on roads managed by NSW’s regional councils between 2008 and 2013.

The NRMA has also called for a greater contribution from the fuel tax to help regional and local councils fund maintenance of roads.

The federal government had raised approximately $15bn from petrol taxes last year, but spent only roughly $6bn on roads in the nation, the NRMA said.

According to the NRMA, the NSW road network is 184,859km-long, of which 146,000km are classified as local roads and are funded and managed by local councils.