October 23, 2024
The long-discussed South Burnett Regional Council plan to replace the timber Home Creek Loop Road Bridge at Cushnie with a concrete structure looks doomed, at least for the moment.
This is despite funding being allocated to the project by both the State and Federal governments.
The Home Creek Loop Road bridge was permanently closed in 2019 after a Level 2 bridge inspection.
This inspection found a number of structural defects which affected the bridge’s load-bearing capacity.
In May 2020, council officers recommended that the bridge be demolished and replaced with a low-level floodway valued at about $100,000.
“It is noted, that to replace this existing timber bridge with a modern equivalent would be in excess of $150,000 providing a level of service in excess of the remainder of the road. Council Officers see the construction of a floodway to be low risk to the public,” the report to the May 2020 Council meeting stated.
Councillors voted to submit the bridge, along with another at Inverlaw, for funding under the Federal Government’s Bridge Renewal Program.
In December 2022, southburnett.com.au reported Council had received $583,680 from this Federal program to replace the one-lane Home Creek Loop Road bridge with a two-lane concrete structure, with the estimated total cost of the project to be $729,600.
At that time, a Council spokesperson said a design and construction tender would be released “in the coming months” to engage a contractor “and all things going well, Council expects to commence works late 2024-25”.
In the 2023-24 State Budget, the project was allocated $40,000 to complement the Federal Government funding and $146,000 from the South Burnett Regional Council.
The SBRC earmarked $770,000 in its 2023-24 Budget for the bridge replacement.
Council’s October meeting was told the estimated costs to replace the little-used bridge had blown out.
Councillors voted to “defer” the bridge replacement “due to industry cost escalation” but would “seek increased funding from eligible programs in the future”.
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