Whenever news comes out that new sections of road in remote Australia are being sealed, it seems to strongly divide grey nomad opinion.
While some travellers are excited at the prospect of new areas of the country becoming accessible to them and their rigs, others decry the perceived loss of adventure that the bitumen brings.
However, if the situation in Cape York in Far North Queensland is any guide, there is no guarantee that sealed roads bring either accessibility or ‘mundane’ driving conditions.
The Peninsula Developmental Road between Laura and Musgrave was sealed in 2015 but photographs show sections of the main transport route on the cape have crumbled after recent rain.
Major repairs are now under way.
Far North Queensland Federal MP Warren Entsch told the ABC that millions went into sealing the road and it should have been built to withstand the heavy rains of the wet season.
“It makes me sick in the guts, it’s an absolute disgrace,” Mr Entsch said. “This is a huge waste of taxpayer’s money … that road now is worse than what it was before they started to seal it.”
The Peninsula Developmental Road spans almost 600 kilometres from Lakeland to Weipa and is the main road transport link on Cape York. In the past five years about 180 kilometres of the road have been sealed at a cost of more than $220 million through a jointly funded federal and state program.
Mr Entsch told the ABC that Transport and Main Roads (TMR) should have the capacity to be able to work out what is required in these areas.
“This area floods regularly and clearly they (TMR) haven’t taken drainage into consideration or put in the appropriate culverts,” he said. “Even if the water is very high, surely to goodness the standard of construction should have been better than that.”
However, Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said he was disappointed Mr Entsch had to ‘talk down such a great project’ and that it was a “distraction tactic on giving certainty to tourism operators in the Far North once JobKeeper ends”.
A spokeswoman for Queensland’s Transport and Main Roads said the recent road damage was caused by “unprecedented rainfall”, including from Tropical Cyclone Imogen, which crossed as a category one system on the opposite side of Cape York last month.
Do they deliberately lay substandard roads in order to receive funding for the necessary constant repairs?
I spoke to a couple of retired road builders from interstate and was told the base used on Qld roads was about 1/3 of the minimum required in most states.Our local highway (Flinders) was partly resurfaced and the potholes were back in a week.
Warren Entsch is a Liberal , right, QLD is Labor. Of course he is going to criticize. North of Carnarvon WA, there was about 10 kms of the Northwest Coastal Highway washed away a couple of weeks ago. Ten years ago the same section washed away. We can all be critical of the Governments. If you listen to the urban cowboys, they don’t want any roads sealed except the ones they use to go to town. By the way, I have had wise people from the East criticize the Great Northern Highway between Halls Creak and the Kununurra turnoff for having too many 1 way bridges. Flooding is the reason. Its much cheaper to build a 1 way bridge than a 2 way
When they laid the Clybucca straight on the Pacific HWY, which was a flood zone for 25 km, they did it in concrete, it lasted 40 years, of constant high volume floods When they did the due carriageway, they also did it in concrete, commonsense, to do that this way in high floodzones. Tar, will never survive floods ever.
Builders of the 60s and 70s knew how to build roads. The roads back then stood up to all the floods and didn’t break down. What happened since then?
Bigger cars and trucks – and more of them?
Roads of today are mostly built for rungs on the ladder for the Govt with NO such thing as quality in mind.
Agree with Ric,Carol and Geoff.. concrete is way to go IF quality ever comes into it..
Can always slap a cover of tar over it like the Hornibrook bridge to Redcliffe.
In answer to the actual question…..YES
I offered a comment under the “should we have roadside bins” article. The same letter would fit here. Just change a couple of words.
Happy bouncing.
Definitely not.
The Romans built some of the best roads ever. Still going today. Too many budget saving Engineers and so called Public Servants looking after they own interests these days.