A stretch of Bruce Highway north of Gympie will be dug up for the third time in almost three
years.
I’ve been advised the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) will be undertaking
interim repairs on sections of the Highway at Chatsworth. *
The road is atrocious and extremely dangerous.
I’m concerned it will be another band-aid solution.
They’ve admitted the repairs are only interim and they will only be fixing damage from
recent weather events.
The road was in serious disrepair long before the rain even started failing.
Six weeks ago, I wrote to the Transport Minister saying the condition of the Bruce Highway
from Two Mile School to Fisherman’s Pocket Road, Chatsworth was extremely dangerous.
I wrote again on 9 March saying the condition has deteriorated further and that it was
appalling.
The Minister has gone silent.
He is clearly distracted by his self-inflicted integrity issues.
It was damaged long before the floods.
At the end of last year there was a permanent and complete failure of the road pavement
where cars were swerving to avoid potholes.
The wheel ruts from heavy transport vehicles were clearly visible in long sections and there
were more than a dozen sections which needed repair.
It was supposed to be upgraded in mid-2019.
Then two years ago, it was repaired six months after almost $17 million was spent on the
upgrade.
The excuse then was they didn’t know the condition of the underlying pavement.
There would have to be a metre high of Departmental archives going back 50 years of a
mishmash of repairs.
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It would have to be one of the most dug up, patched and repatched stretches of highway.
Ironically TMR advised in 2020 it would monitor the road during the wet season to see if the
pavement stabilised or would continue to deteriorate under harsh weather conditions. **
That road has deteriorated under good weather conditions, under harsh conditions, under
every type of condition.
It’s not good enough, this is the National Highway.
The government is not dealing with the problem.
They need to tell us what it is and what is the fix.
