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October 4, 2012
South Burnett residents will be happy to hear that the work to rebuild the D’Aguilar Highway through the Blackbutt Range is nearing the final stages.
Unfortunately there are still at least 10 weeks of lane closures that will be necessary.
In June 2012, the highway re-opened to two lanes with a temporary road surface. Now a permanent road surface has to be laid.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads says that to enable the permanent surface works to be carried out safely and efficiently, the highway will need to return to single lane operation for a period of about 10 weeks.
These works and single lane closure are expected to start at 8:00pm on Sunday, October 7, weather permitting.
During the lane closure, this section of the highway through the range will again be under 24-hour traffic control.
Traffic will be permitted up the range (towards Benarkin) on the hour and half-hour, and down the range at a quarter to and a quarter past the hour.
Delays can be expected.
Progress Update
The Department says the recent dry spell has enabled works to progress mostly without disruption.
During the past year there has been more than 800mm of rainfall at the reconstruction site, and about a quarter of that occurred in June and July 2012.
This caused a large amount of lost time on the project, but the project team has still been able to achieve the excavation of more than 500,000 cubic metres of earth to date.
There is still a significant amount of excavation to undertake (about 30,000 cubic metres), along with the road surface work.
Project Summary
The D’Aguilar Highway through the Blackbutt Range sustained major damage in January 2011. The highway was impacted by numerous landslips over a 2.5 km stretch of the road between Moore and Blackbutt.
Reconstruction works on this section of the D’Aguilar Highway have progressed significantly, and have included major stabilisation works, drainage and pavement repairs.
It is expected the massive task of rebuilding the D’Aguilar Highway through the Blackbutt Range will be completed in early 2013, weather permitting.
