April 28, 2021
Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington has queried whether the State Government will ever fix two key local roads after receiving responses to two recent Questions on Notice in State Parliament.
Mrs Frecklington had quizzed Transport Minister Mark Bailey in regards to:
- Kilkivan-Tansey Road: Will the Minister advise (a) when funding will be provided to widen the dangerous single-lane sections to two lanes, (b) why recent works to the Coppermine Creek Bridge did not widen the bridge to two lanes, (c) the cost of the recent Coppermine Creek Bridge remediation works, (d) in comparison, what did modelling show as the cost to widen this bridge to two lanes and (e) given planning for the Wide Bay Creek bridge is listed in Queensland Transport and Roads Investment Program (QTRIP), when will funding be made available to upgrade this bridge?
- Brooweena-Woolooga Road: With reference to Running Creek Bridge, a notoriously dangerous single-lane bridge located on the Brooweena-Woolooga Road and the subsequent building of a side track following the old wooden bridge burning down and collapsing in December 2019 following a car accident — Will the Minister advise, given that planning has been conducted to upgrade and re-align the Running Creek Bridge, when funding will be provided to build a new bridge and improve safety on this road?
Mrs Frecklington said the answers to her two questions gave her no hope the roads would be fixed.
She said the first, regarding Kilkivan-Tansey Road, stated: “I can confirm that there are no plans in place to widen the single-lane sections to two lanes, and that any future planning would need to compete against statewide priorities.”
Mrs Frecklington said she had also specifically asked why recent works to the Coppermine Creek Bridge did not widen the bridge to two lanes.
“It was revealed that the works cost $1.4 million and only involved ‘rehabilitating the structure at its existing width’,” Mrs Frecklington said.
“Upgrade of the Running Creek Bridge will also be determined based on competing priorities.
“These key roads are continuously overlooked for funding and they’ve been neglected by Labor for far too long.
“At a statewide level, we know that the backlog on State-controlled roads has blown out from $4 billion to $6 billion.
“The Labor Government was warned by the Auditor-General three years ago that there were serious problems with Queensland’s roads, but Labor did nothing.
“The Auditor-General also forecast that our maintenance backlog would grown to $9 billion this decade, but at the current rate we’re going, it will be well over $10 billion.
“While Labor’s ‘big black hole’, Cross River Rail, sucks up all the cash, regional road users are left to deal with more potholes, dodgy bridges and unsafe roads.
“Labor just don’t get the importance of these regional roads to our local community.
“They’ve completely lost control of road maintenance.”
