Burdekin mayor lambasts Bruce Highway, calls for second bridge

A new bridge could soon be on the horizon for the Burdekin, with Transport and Main Roads revealing plans to address mounting concerns over the current 70-year-old structure. VOTE IN OUR POLL.

Burdekin Mayor Pierina Dalle Cort is pushing for a second bridge to run alongside the existing 70-year-old Burdekin Bridge on the Bruce Highway between Ayr and Home Hill.

Transport and Main Roads has revealed that the Burdekin could be in line for a new bridge after the district’s new mayor kicked up a “stink”.

In response to criticisms from Mayor Pierina Dalle Cort earlier this week, a TMR spokesperson said the Australian and Queensland governments had pledged $23.92 million and $5.98 million respectively toward the Burdekin Deviation planning and corridor preservation project.

“This project, which is expected to commence by the end of 2024, will explore and refresh the existing planning to identify a suitable and preferred option for a deviation that meets current standards,” they said.

“It will also explore proposals for crossing of the Burdekin River, including the option of constructing a new bridge that is fit for purpose and will service north Queensland well into the future.”

A male patient has been freed from his car after it struck a pole on the Burdekin Bridge last month. Picture: Supplied

Mrs Dalle Cort, speaking before the announcement, said she was so concerned about the state of the narrow, 70-year-old bridge and traffic volumes that she had raised the issue with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the recent Bush Summit in Townsville.

“If you take a drive and see the amount of traffic you’ll see how scary it is – most seniors, for a start, won’t even drive on it at night because they are frightened by it.”

She said the bridge was also prone to road closures and the severing of the strategically vital but outdated Bruce Highway.

Burdekin Shire Council Mayor Pierina Dalle Cort says discussions about a new bridge spanned back as far about 1999 when she was president of the Burdekin Chamber of Commerce.

In the latest incidents, a truck burst into flames on the bridge on June 6, closing the Bruce for more than three hours, while another accident near the bridge left a motorists with leg and head injuries and closed the highway for about six hours.

“I think it’s time that we should be looking at the second bridge crossing because it’s about 700 kilometres before you can make another crossing (of the Burdekin River),” Ms Dalle Cort said.

“You see the traffic now with trucks, transportation, motor homes, caravans, it is a busy, busy road and if it’s cut off … it just backs up for miles on end.”

She said it was time for the State and Federal governments to “get into the new century and move with times”.

“The North is just as important as the South in terms of infrastructure.”

A truck on fire near the Burdekin Bridge, closing the Bruce Highway. Picture: Supplied

Charred remains of the truck which caught on fire near Burdekin Bridge, blocking the Bruce Highway. Picture: Supplied

Ms Dalle Cort viewed the need for a new Burdekin Bridge as more pressing than the proposed new bridges to Bribie Island in South-East Queensland and over the Barron River near Cairns.

“We don’t need anything fancy, one bridge running south and one running north, but in times of crisis, then you’ve got a second bridge crossing,” she said.

“The North is getting very busy, everybody concentrates on the South-East corner but get your arses up North because we’ve got a lot to offer, this is where it is all happening.”

Ms Dalle Cort said the government and Transport and Main Roads had done great things with the Bruce Highway between Ayr and Townsville, “but the rest of it stinks – it’s just awful”.

“The North needs some respect too.”

Burdekin MP Dale Last said residents and the transport industry had been calling for upgrades of the Bruce, including a second bridge, for more than a decade, bemoaning the state Labor government focused on South-East Queensland and a “federal Labor government that has slashed funding” to the vital highway.

“The construction of a second crossing of the Burdekin River needs to take into account the business community, the needs of residents, the needs to the transport industry and also ensuring we preserve as much prime farming land as possible,” he said.

“It is also vitally important that the addition of a second bridge is an actual upgrade as far as flood immunity and reducing closures.”

Burdekin MP Dale Last says that until all levels of government acknowledge the issues plaguing the Bruce, including the Burdekin Bridge bottleneck, “the people who rely on those roads will be left to make do with substandard infrastructure”. Picture: Richard Walker

Mr Last said major road upgrades did not happen overnight.

“What is needed is for politics to be put aside and for both sides, at all levels, to come to the table with two simple goals: to make our roads safer and to reduce closures.”

TMR said it would consult with the community as the project progressed to ensure that solutions were “appropriate for both the Burdekin community and those that routinely travel this section of the Bruce Highway”.

The spokesperson said the governments had also committed $96.9 million in joint funding to deliver a rehabilitation program of works for the existing Burdekin River Bridge.

They said the ongoing program would ensure “the bridge is preserved and maintained for the long-term use of vehicles, heavy transport operators, rail operations, bike riders and pedestrians”.

Originally published as Burdekin mayor lambasts Bruce Highway, calls for second bridge