May 5, 2021
The problem of B-doubles being unable to access the Wondai industrial estate may be solved … at least temporarily.
At Wednesday’s Infrastructure standing committee meeting, Councillors were told industrial estate businesses who need B-double access should contact the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and Council as a first step to see if a temporary permit could be arranged.
Permits would allow affected businesses to continue their operations as normal until a more permanent solution for B-double access to the industrial estate could be found.
Infrastructure General Manager Aaron Meehan said Council staff were researching possible solutions and hoped to have a full report for Councillors outlining all available options by next month.
Mr Meehan said the main problem appeared to be that the industrial estate – which was created by the former Wondai Shire Council more than two decades ago – had never been designed for B-doubles.
This meant the sweep paths for the trucks were very tight, particularly around intersections.
He said one possible solution might be to make B-double traffic through the estate’s main roads one way and to enlarge the intersections.
But the cost of doing this would not be known until Council officers had completed a detailed study.
Deputy Mayor Gavin Jones reminded the meeting Council had already allocated $900,000 towards upgrading the industrial estate’s roads from a $1.9 million grant it had received earlier this year.
While he believed it was very likely a solution to the estate’s problems would cost more than this, he thought reallocating some of Council’s Works For Queensland grant funds set aside for infrastructure projects could provide a source of funding that would not entail any new borrowings.
Cr Kirstie Schumacher suggested that since the estate’s businesses were the ones which would benefit from any upgrade, Council should also explore possible co-funding of the road works with them.
Councillors voted to wait until June’s standing committee meeting when a full report on all possible options had been prepared by staff.
- Related article: B-Double Ban Threatens Jobs
