April 10, 2012
Work on repairing Kumbia-Brooklands Road will begin by April 30, South Burnett Regional councillor Debra Palmer said today.
Cr Palmer was responding to comments by a reader who contacted southburnett.com.au to complain that the road in the Ellesmere area had become an “accident waiting to happen”.
The reader supplied photographs and said the terrible state of the road was linked to the construction of a huge new Powerlink sub-station nearby.
Cr Palmer said she had been receiving complaints about the road for 18 months and she agreed that it was “absolutely appalling”.
“We have been waiting for the government to give us money because it’s flood damage,” she said.
Cr Palmer said once the money was approved, tenders had to be sought and this was a long process. However, a tender had now been approved and work would begin by April 30 at the latest.
But Cr Palmer agreed some of the damage was being caused by trucks travelling to the sub-station construction site.
“I’ve been told that some of the trucks using the roads – truck and dog trailer combinations – should not be,” she said.
“Council are in negotiations to recover some of the cost of fixing the road.”
Cr Palmer said council had done patchwork repairs on the road since the floods “but it’s just not lasting because of the heavy volume of traffic”.
“I am very angry about the road and the state that it’s in,” she said.
“I requested lights be installed on one part of it, but they haven’t come in as yet. All we could do in the meantime was lower the speed limit.”
