A spate of truck crashes on Queensland’s major freight route has added more weight to industry lobbying for urgent safety fixes.
Speaking after a catastrophic run of accidents in late August, which saw three people lose their lives and an explosion that blocked the route for five days, the CEO of the Queensland Trucking Association (QTA), Gary Mahon, said the federal government must do more to make the Bruce Highway safer.
“The bottom line is, it’s time for a significant upgrade in investment,” said Mahon.
“When you consider that it’s the only number one highway in the country that is not multi-laned.
“The three main highways in NSW are multi-laned, as are a couple in Victoria.”
To illustrate how slow progress has been on getting the Bruce up to par, Mahon cited the Cooroy to Curra upgrades, a 62km Gympie bypass, that has taken 15 years to finish.
“There’s another 1398km to go from Gympie to Cairns,” Mahon said.
“We know where the treatments are needed; bridge replacements, pavement widths, overtaking lanes, rest areas, floodway treatments, and the like.
“We’re going to need a boost to something like $15-$18 billion over the next 6-8 years, but that would bring it up on those single lane sections from two-star to three-star.
“Over time the more substantial investment to multi-laning will occur over how many next decades it’s going to take.”
Mahon argues that it all comes down to what he calls “the will and desire” of government.
“To shift the priority on to that level of investment,” he said.
“In areas where they want to, they find that sort of money. What we’re saying is, it’s time that the Bruce got its turn.”
Mahon said there are no shortage of sections of the Bruce that need fixing: “it’s almost an endless list.”
There are a raft of dangerous intersections at Maryborough – the scene of a horrific fatal crash in March – and he also singled out the Marlborough stretch that gets a lot of mentions by drivers.
“There are literally tens of bridges that are too narrow and bridges that are lacking in capacity in any case. I also believe there are only two or three overtaking lanes between Rockhampton and Mackay.
Mahon also understands that there is planning for ring roads around Childers and Gin Gin, but now it’s a matter of finding the money to make it happen.
“The Tiaro bypass is about to commence, but we’ve not had any formal feedback about provision of rest areas along that section.”
Mahon said the fact that the spate of accidents on the Bruce in August all occurred within about 60km of each other also highlights the need for urgent fixes in that region.
“All through that section the shoulder width is negligible. So, you have a situation where drivers are getting along there at night, with virtually no shoulder something happens in front of them, or sudden loss of visibility, like we had last week [August] with fog and smoke, they can’t pull over without becoming a hazard themselves.
“That’s the sort of concern that we have right up and down that highway, because it’s single lane all the way from Gympie to Cairns.”
Mahon said it’s great that the Rocky Ring Road has started but the rate at which the Gympie Bypass was finished, is a concern when you look at the relative speed it took to duplicate the Pacific Motorway.
“Multi-laning, or duplicating, fundamentally eliminates just a tremendous outcome for that sort of level of capital investment. It’s also an enormous economic boost, improved safety, connectivity, productivity, you know, reliability during all weather.”
Mahon said completion of the Inland Freight Route will take the pressure off the Bruce, with a number of works already underway on the 1185km route from Mungindi to Charters Towers.
“But you’re still going to have what we’d call the retail freight on the Bruce delivering into those communities, and the amount of vehicles out every night is in the hundreds.”
Image: RACQ
The QTA has now joined a consortium of other industry groups, that includes the RACQ, to lobby political parties to commit to a 10-year funding plan with the federal government to fix the Bruce.
“We’re very concerned that the federal government has stepped back from an 80:20 funding distribution [with the state] to 50:50 on the Bruce and that’s not reasonable in our view.
“It is the number one road and part of the national highway network. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that our federal government steps up and sticks to the 80:20 funding principle.”
In a statement, federal Minister for Infrastructure Catherine King told Big Rigs that the federal government is investing $10 billion on the Bruce Highway, including $1.35 billion for the Bruce Highway Safety Package.
King said the latter goes directly to areas that need it most.
“We have a significant amount of money on the table, and now the work needs to be done,” King said.
“I have asked that the Queensland Government bring forward proposals to accelerate safety works, within commonwealth commitments already made as well as future priorities for the upcoming budget process.”
When asked about the likelihood of a dual carriageway north of Gympie, King said the federal government works closely with the state government on projects they deem a priority.
“Should the Queensland Government identify this as a priority for federal funding, we will consider any proposal through the usual budget process.”
While the Albanese government is sticking with the original 80:20 investment split with the state government for the Inland Freight Route, any future projects on the Bruce are likely to be via a 50:50 funding split.
“What we are asking is that, moving forward, the states match our commitment on jointly-funded projects; Not to increase what they invest in infrastructure overall, but to spread their funding more evenly on the projects we fund together in order to share in risk and have healthier incentive to keep costs in check,” King said.
Earlier this year, the state government released details of its 15-year plan for the Bruce which included flood immunity projects, bridge replacements and the Rocky Ring Road.
The Miles government said it will also increase its annual Bruce funding commitment to $250 million a year from 2027-28.
A damning report by Northern Bruce Action Group member Colin Dwyer and Dr Tracy Cheffins, who drove more than 1600km along the highway in July, said the Bruce would need $20 billion to bring it up to par.
Local MP Andrew Willcox said the section that runs through his Dawson electorate is the most dangerous and has started a petition, Back Our Bruce, to lobby for fixes.