Mackay residents Dean and Lydia Camilleri call out Transport and Main Roads over Bruce Highway upgrade

The Camilleris are frustrated over delayed work on a major highway project that is playing havoc on their yard and have argued with Main Roads for months. But they’re sceptical anything will change.

Lydia and Dean Camilleri at Glenella on May 4, 2023. Picture: Michaela Harlow

A $144m upgrade to the Bruce Highway in Mackay’s north has been a boon for the region but a long-running frustration for small business owners Dean and Lydia Camilleri.

Their house and business, Advanced Tree Care Mackay, fronts the highway at Glenella and they say they have suffered from incomplete work on the Mackay Northern Access Upgrade even after the project officially wrapped up in October last year.

As part of the upgrade, the Camilleris said construction contractor CPB Contractors was required to engineer a strip of vegetation on a parcel of land separating the highway from their house at 4 Blue Gum Dr to prevent run-off damaging the property.

The Camilleris said the work had not been completed and run-off entered their yard after rainfalls.

“For some reason, no one has come back and done anything to it,” Mr Camilleri said.

Lydia and Dean Camilleri at Glenella on May 4, 2023. Picture: Michaela Harlow

He said he reached out to the Department of Transport and Main Roads for an explanation but could not lock down a clear response.

“Every time we ring main roads, they say they will get back to us, but they never have,” he said, adding they had been going back and forth for months.

This week though, a department spokesman confirmed some movement on the job.

“CPB Contractors are scheduled to complete this work by the end of this month,” the spokesman said.

But Lydia is sceptical the work will happen.

“They’ve been saying that every month,” she said.

“It is just a wait and see kind of game.”