The condition of many Outback roads hasn’t been helped in recent weeks by significant rainfall, and the endless battle to keep them ‘travellable’ continues.
Some $4 million in Federal and State funds has been allocated for maintenance and upgrades to South Australia’s Strzelecki Track in the past two financial years, but it seems that is nowhere near enough.
Drivers say the 500 kilometre dirt road, which runs from Lyndhurst to the gas fields at Moomba, has seen a rise in traffic volume in recent times but works have not kept pace.
Truckers say the deteriorating surface of the track is taking a heavy toll on their vehicles.
“That road destroys trucks,” Road Transport Association executive director, Steve Shearer, told the ABC. “The corrugations are so big and so bad that they just shake trucks to pieces.”
State Liberal MP for Stuart Dan van Holst Pellekaan says more action needs to be taken on the track.
“The vast majority of it has got bulldust holes and is extremely rough and rocky,” he told the ABC. “The road below the road surface has just disappeared.”
Mr van Holst Pellekaan said the condition of the track meant that some driver spent hours on end travelleing at 15 and 20 kilometres per hour.
The South Australian Government says its future commitments for track maintenance and upgrades are outlined in a plan currently out for consultation.
No I have not been on that track and would not ever do it if it shakes the trucks to pieces i would never do that to my motorhome