Destroyed Angellala Creek Bridge near Charleville set to be rebuilt

A QUEENSLAND bridge destroyed in what is believed to be Australia’s biggest ever peacetime explosion will be rebuilt.

A SOUTH western Queensland bridge destroyed in what is believed to be Australia’s biggest ever peacetime explosion will be rebuilt.

The Angellala Creek Bridge was wiped out last September when a truck carrying 50 tonnes of ammonium nitrate overturned.

The Angellala Creek Bridge was wiped out last September.

A massive flame had shot in a thin, vertical column hundreds of metres into the western Queensland sky as police officer Constable Kenric Head was racing to the scene of the truck accident on the Mitchell Highway, 30km outside Charleville.

Charleville truck explosion. Picture: Pete Wade of South West Air Service

Const. Head, and his police colleagues – along with attending firemen and the truck driver – were lucky to survive the blast which was equal to the power homegrown US terrorist Tim McVeigh unleashed in Oklahoma in April 1995 outside a federal building, killing 168 people.

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The $10 million rebuild will reopen a crucial transport corridor onto the Mitchell Highway, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

The scene of the Angellala Creek Bridge truck explosion.

“It’s unbelievable to see first hand here the depth of the devastation,” she said at the site.

Ms Palaszczuk said the project would also create more than 20 new jobs for the area.

The new bridge will be 9.2 metres wide and higher than its predecessor to allow for better flood protection.

It’s hoped it will be ready by late November.

Eight people were injured in the crash and explosion, including the truck driver, who miraculously survived.

– AAP

It is amazing that no one was killed in the explosion. Picture: QPS Media