(Photo: Nanango Electorate Office)
December 6, 2019
Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington has called on the State Government to replace Running Creek Bridge urgently.
The notorious bridge on an unsealed section of Brooweena-Woolooga Road at Woolooga has been the site of multiple crashes, but the latest this week sparked a fire which led to a large section of the wooden bridge collapsing.
The rest of the bridge has now been demolished.
Mrs Frecklington said Running Creek Bridge had always been dangerous and should have been replaced many years ago.
“Regular users of the Brooweena-Woolooga Road understand how bad this old, single-lane timber bridge was, with serious and fatal crashes not uncommon,” Mrs Frecklington said.
“At the 2017 election I singled out this bridge as it was in desperate need of complete replacement, and I will keep the pressure on the Labor Government now that the bridge has completely collapsed.”
Mrs Frecklington said the approaches to the bridge should also be re-aligned.
“It seems ridiculous in this day and age that regional road users are expected to negotiate these unsafe bridges,” she said.
“Labor isn’t interested in investing in regional infrastructure and they are certainly not interested in investing in the bridge projects our region needs.
“Surely this incident will make them finally understand that funding must now be made available to build a new, completely re-aligned Running Creek Bridge.
“The Woolooga-Brooweena Road is an important connecting road and the loss of this bridge will severely impact not only local users, but visitors who take the inland route to travel through our region.
“We also have primary producers who will now have to travel a significant extra distance to deliver feed and water to livestock on their properties.
“They can’t be waiting forever for a new bridge.
“A sidetrack through the creek is not an acceptable long-term solution. We need to urgently know what the Labor Government will do to properly fix this situation.”
Tuesday’s car crash created a large grass fire but fortunately the occupants of the vehicle escaped with no serious injuries.
On Friday morning, fire crews were still monitoring the fire burning in the nearby area.
A QFES spokesperson said firefighters were strengthening containment lines.
- Related article: Woolooga Bushfire: Update
