The deluge in the first week of July wreaked havoc on the city's road network, leaving dozens of properties stranded, and exacerbating issues that lingered from the March flood.

Cessnock City Council staff are still assessing and responding to the natural disaster's impact on the roads, making safe access for residents a priority.

This means council crews have been diverted from current and upcoming projects and their regular maintenance schedule, which is not expected to resume for two months.

More than 50 local roads were closed during the flood event, and many have undergone urgent repairs in order to restore access for residents and businesses.

In the past two-and-a-half weeks council crews have restored access on eight roads in the Wollombi Valley, while in the north of the city, roads that have reopened to residents include O'Connor's Road and Lomas Lane, at Nulkaba; and Old North Road and Wilderness Road, Rothbury.

Further works are planned to provide all-weather/all-vehicle access on these roads over the coming weeks.

Three-to-four teams have been tasked to patch the road network in the south of the LGA for the past two weeks, while in the north, patching continues on arterial roads including Sawyers Gully Road, McDonalds Road, Majors Lane and local suburban roads, with follow-up work expected due to the continued wet weather.

With operational staff redeployed to these emergency maintenance jobs, a number of council's current and proposed construction projects have been deferred, including Old Maitland Road (tree works); Thomas Street, North Rothbury; Wollombi Road, Millfield; Congewai Road, Congewai and Cessnock Road, Weston.

A council spokesperson said the status of each project will be reviewed on a weekly basis, and based on the outstanding emergency maintenance workloads.

"Council's operational resources are focused on restoring safe access to residents on all council-owned roads as a priority," the spokesperson said.

"The effect of this event in conjunction with the March 2022 event have exacerbated the emergency maintenance issues and subsequently delayed a return to council's reactive and proactive area maintenance schedule.

"It is expected, weather dependent, that resumption of renewal projects and maintenance schedules will not resume within the next two months."

Cessnock mayor Jay Suvaal said the impact of these flood events on the local road network and residents has been devastating, and he thanked the community for their understanding and asked for their continued patience while crews continue assess the damage and manage the backlog of repairs.

"Council has responded with crews working around the clock throughout the disaster to manage road closures, assess the damage, and make urgent repairs," Cr Suvaal said.

"There have been more than 50 road closures during this flood event, and restoring our road network as quickly as possible has been a top priority to ensure the safety of our residents.

"Council data indicates there has been in excess of 10,000 pothole repairs since the start of June, which highlights just how much damage has been caused by these consecutive flooding events."

Council is still assessing emergency repair and damage costs for the March and July flood events for natural disaster funding assistance, with submissions for both events due by September 2022.

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