July 28, 2021
South Burnett Regional Council will write to the Department of Transport and Main Roads (DTMR) to request the extension of an existing 80km/h speed zone on the Bunya Highway north of Kingaroy.
At July’s Infrastructure standing committee meeting, Councillors were told the intersection of Taylors Road and the Bunya Highway remained dangerous despite a $600,000 safety upgrade carried out in 2017.
The intersection has been the site of many crashes over the years, including a number of fatal accidents.
Councillors were told the intersection was in the highway’s 100km/h zone, but extending the 80km/h zone north a few hundred metres past Taylor’s Road would be an inexpensive safety upgrade.
At Wednesday’s General Meeting, Councillors voted to approach DTMR about the matter.
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South Burnett Regional Council will also arrange for road safety audits of five of the region’s problem intersections so it can prepare a case for Federal Government funding to fix them.
On Wednesday, Councillors voted to carry out audits on:
- Youngman/King streets, Kingaroy
- Coulson/Hart streets, Blackbutt
- Bunya Highway/Kearneys Road/Kumbia Road, Kumbia
- Bunya Mountains Road/Bunya Avenue, Bunya Mountains, and
- Meiers Road/Weens Road/West Street, Kingaroy
The audits will look at existing problems with the intersections, possible safety upgrades that could be made, and the social costs of leaving the intersections as they are (measured by accidents and fatal crashes) against the cost of carrying out improvements.
The five intersections will then be submitted to the 2022-23 round of the Federal Government’s Black Spots grants program.
