Roadwork To Limit Range Crossing

July 4, 2012

The D’Aguilar Highway across the Blackbutt Range will revert to a single lane for a few days next week to allow pavement work to occur.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads said today there was still a significant amount of construction work to be done on the site, and for the safety of road users and road workers it would have to introduce changed traffic arrangements on a number of occasions before the project is finished.

Upcoming temporary changes to traffic conditions (weather permitting) include:

• Single lane closure (24 hours a day) from 8:00pm on Sunday, July 8, to 2:00pm on Saturday, July 14 to enable pavement works. The highway will revert to the former single lane traffic controls whereby traffic is permitted up the range on the hour and half hour, and down the range at a quarter past and a quarter to the hour.

• Full road closure for a couple of hours to enable blasting for further earthworks. This is scheduled for Thursday, July 19, from 1:30pm to 3:30pm. Traffic will be stopped at both Benarkin and Moore during this time. For safety reasons, blasting cannot occur at night.

• Single lane closure 24 hours a day from 8:00pm on Sunday, August 5, to 2:00pm Saturday, August 11. The highway will revert to the former single lane traffic controls whereby traffic is permitted up the range on the hour and half hour, and down the range at a quarter past and a quarter to the hour.

A Department spokesman said that despite ongoing weather disruptions this year, significant progress has been achieved in reconstructing the road around the landslip sites.

The majority of the project work, including road surface works, was expected to be completed before Christmas, weather permitting, however there may be some extra works beyond this date.