December 4, 2014
Motorists who have been forced to drive slowly around construction work near the River Road-Youngman Street roundabout in Kingaroy will have to continue doing so for a few months yet.
South Burnett Regional Council is in the process of replacing River Road’s trunk sewer.
The $1.03 million project – which involves boring a tunnel under the Bunya Highway to avoid major traffic disruptions – isn’t expected to be finished until January or February.
SBRC Infrastructure General Manager Russell Hood said the project was forced on Council by the 2011 and 2013 floods, which overloaded the old sewerage infrastructure.
“The floods caused three major collapses of the River Road trunk sewer,” Mr Hood said.
“Other sections were also severely damaged which would result in further collapses if not repaired.”
This section of sewer carries most of the sewage from the town area to the Waste Water Treatment Plant on Hodges Road.
The construction project involves the replacement of old 375mm sewer pipes with 600mm diameter pipes from Baron Street and River Road to First Avenue.
The larger pipes will cater for increased flows as the town area grows.
The remaining section of the trunk sewer will be replaced after the new Kingaroy Waste Water Treatment Plant is built.
Funding for the project has come from Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, a joint funding program provided by the State and Federal governments.
Work is being carried out by staff from Doval Constructions (Qld) Pty Ltd, who won a tender for the project.
While I appreciate Council chose the cheapest tender for this job, I’m also disgusted that local contractors were not used. Wouldn’t it have been nice to keep that million dollar contract in the South Burnett?