Cr Spud Jones
May 19, 2016
Following April’s announcement that the Federal Government will contribute $1.65 million to upgrade two of the South Burnett’s most dangerous “black spot” intersections, investigations are now underway at five other locations.
Last month the Federal Government agreed to fund upgrades to the Taylors Road intersection north of Kingaroy, and the Coolabunia Road and Mary Road intersections at Coolabunia, near Coolabunia State School.
Cr Spud Jones told Wednesday’s Council meeting the intersections now being examined for future funding submissions were the Knight / Somerset streets / Walter Road intersection at Kingaroy; the Drayton / Cairns streets intersection in Nanango; and Kingaroy’s Youngman / King streets, Haly / William streets and Alford / Somerset streets intersections.
Investigations include concept design, traffic counts and road safety audits.
Many crashes have occurred at the five intersections over the past five years.
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Drivers who use Tingoora-Chelmsford Road will need to take a long detour via the Wondai-Chinchilla Road for a while yet.
Cr Jones said the realignment of a tight curve near Tingoora was likely to take at least another three weeks, slightly longer than the completion date originally hoped.
Sub-base gravel has now been laid and top-base gravel will begin being laid this week.
Sealing and final works will be done once this has been carried out.
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Three new bridges will come into full operation in the very near future, Cr Jones said.
Campbells Road Bridge at Silverleaf had a bitumen seal applied this week, and line-marking and signage will follow soon afterwards.
The same applies to the Mondure Road bridge.
And the Weens Road bridge will come into full operation when its side track is removed this week.
In all, the three bridges have cost $2 million to replace.
Works on rehabilitating four timber bridges – at Webbers Creek, Manar, Stumckes Road and the Gayndah Hivesville Road – are expected to begin in June.
Contracts are also being prepared for the Marshlands and Kings road bridges, which are expected to go out to tender in early June, as part of the Council’s 2016-17 Bridge Replacement Program.
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Work on a new roundabout at the corner of Fisher and Moore streets in Kingaroy is proceeding.
Concrete to complete the centre island will be poured this week, and work on the traffic islands should occur next week.
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Work on upgrades to a long section of the Proston-Boondooma Road, south-west of Proston, have been completed.
However, a second seal and line marking of the new works won’t occur until August.
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The extension of the car park in Murgon’s Angel Avenue is now almost 90 per cent complete, Cr Jones said.
A fence at the upgraded car park still has to be completed, and a final bitumen seal and line marking remain to be done.
Tingoora State School’s car park upgrade is also very close to being finalised.
A new pram ramp and line marking will complete the project.
The Glendon Street car park upgrade in Kingaroy is also close to being finished; linemarking has been done but concrete garden beds have yet to be completed.
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A major upgrade to the Blackbutt Crows Nest Road is proceeding.
Headwalls are being installed on driveways, and drains are being shaped.
Tree clearing also began on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a $3 million upgrade to Blackbutt’s CBD drainage systems to fix long-standing flooding problems in the area is proceeding to plan.
675mm concrete pipes are being installed in the area heading east on Coulson Street, and construction of a kerb inlet in front of the Blackbutt Newsagency has begun.
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Grader crews are working on Redvale Road in Booie this month.
They will also carry out works on Glencoe Road and Trentham Lave at Coverty, and the Maidenwell-Upper Yarraman Road and surrounding roads at Maidenwell.
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Work on the normalisation of the Memerambi Estate is proceeding, with roadworks and earthworks at the site now underway.
Work has been done on a detention basin and diversion drain to handle stormwater run-off and drainage infrastructure installed from the new basin to the highway inlet at Lord Street.
Cr Jones said the work was slightly behind schedule and was now expected to take until July but this should have a minimal impact on the overall program.
