TMR slammed for ‘Band-Aid’ Barron River bridge fix

The refusal of authorities to bite the bullet and concede there’s a major problem with the Kuranda Range road has been highlighted by the latest “Band-Aid” solutions to patch up infrastructure key to Far Northern growth.

A FAR North advocacy chief has labelled the restricted Barron River bridge at Kuranda a “strangle point” stifling the region’s economic development.

The latest restrictions on the beleaguered Kennedy Highway bridge was just another Band-Aid measure, FNQ Regional Organisation of Councils chief Darlene Irvine said.

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Transport and Main Roads has announced that for four weeks from August 16 there could be regular delays of up to 15 minutes at a time while welding under the ageing structure takes place.

In February 2020 the Department of Transport and Main Roads imposed a load limit of 50.5 tonnes and since November last year commuters have been reduced to a crawl by traffic lights regulating vehicle movements.

Ms Irvine described the bridge as a “strangle point” stifling the region’s growth.

“They need to stop putting Band-Aids on that road and they need to fix the core problem,” she said.

“Limited capacity is a strangle point to economic development.”

Questions are also being raised about the viability of a $10m export hub set to come online next year at the Cairns Airport.

According to FNQROC’s modelling by 2030 there’s expected to be 110,000 traffic movements across the bridge, an increase on about 90,000 this year.

A Department of Transport and Roads worker conducting ultrasonic testing on a girder on the Barron River bridge. Picture: TMR

Ms Irvine said if work today began to address road inefficiencies it would take another 13-15 years to fix the problem.

“And for some reason the state refuses to admit (issues on) that corridor,” she said.

An engineers’ report into the bridge’s condition was completed in February however TMR refused to make findings available and in March announced a new $2.1m investigation.

Barron River MP Craig Crawford said he was frustrated by a lack of a long term plan to address the notorious section of the Kennedy Highway and Kuranda bridge.

“(It’s) our biggest economic challenge after Covid,” he said.

“The Kuranda range is frustrating for everyone and there is still no answer on how to manage it.”

Traffic on the Barron River bridge on the Kennedy Highway near Kuranda will be stopped intermittently for 15 minutes from August 16. Picture: Stewart McLean

Mr Crawford said the usual 100-year lifespan of the bridge wouldn’t be realised. TMR will replace the bridge earlier but no timeline had been worked out however it was not a “deal breaker” for the export hub.

The failed $650m KUR-World eco-resort at Myola was a missed opportunity for the Far Northern economy after being blackballed by TMR in 2019 due to projected increase of Kuranda Range road traffic movements.

The FNQROC executive said there was no political will or funding for the upgrade due to the massive amounts of cash being funnelled into major south east Queensland projects.

“State money (has) been pulled to fund the Cross River Rail project and now will be used to fund the 2032 Olympics,” Ms Irvine said.

“And what’s disappointing is there’s is 80 per cent funding to fix this from the federal government and that means they’re only spending 20 per cent.”

John Doney of John’s Kuranda Bus service crossing the bridge could be held up for held up for an hour each day driving schoolchildren to and from Cairns.

“It’s a bit of a pain in the arse but there’s not much we can do,” he said.

“They are hopeless, the left hand doesn’t not know what the right is doing.”

Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch in a parliamentary speech on Wednesday was “shocked” at the handling of the situation by the state.

“(They) need to cough up the cash to replace the bridge, and reassure an already nervous community that the current bridge won’t collapse into the Barron River,” he said.

Traffic will be stopped intermittently from 9am and 3pm for 15 minutes from August 16.

Originally published as TMR slammed for ‘Band-Aid’ Barron River bridge fix