Warrego Highway: How truck carrying turbine smashed into bridge, causing traffic chaos

New details have been revealed about how a truck carrying part of a wind turbine smashed into a bridge over a major highway, sparking traffic chaos.

New details have been revealed about what may have caused a truck carrying part of a wind turbine to smash into a bridge on a major highway west of Brisbane.

The truck sparked chaos for commuters on the Warrego Highway on Friday morning after it crashed into the Mount Crosby overpass at North Tivoli, with the turbine part it was carrying becoming wedged underneath.

Westbound lanes of the highway were closed - causing traffic to bank up for kilometres - as emergency crews worked to try to remove the obstacle.

Police now believe the truck may have failed to follow escorting vehicles up an offramp to go around the Mount Crosby overpass, and instead ploughed into the overhead bridge.

A truck carrying a section of a wind turbine has crashed into bridge on the Warrego Highway at North Tivoli. Picture: Facebook/CamJay

The incident has caused traffic to bank up for kilometres down the highway. Picture: Facebook/CamJay

Motorists are being warned to avoid using the Warrego Highway in the area, with traffic still being diverted and extensive delays continuing well into the afternoon.

Authorities were expected to use heavy tow trucks to try to remove the turbine, with crews to potentially have to bring in cranes to shift it, Sunrise reported earlier on Friday.

All westbound lanes of the road and Mount Crosby overpass are closed and are expected to remain shut for some time.

Traffic is being diverted onto the Mount Crosby Road exit.

“Eastbound lanes of the Warrego Highway are not impacted”, a Queensland Police statement said.

“Lengthy delays expected.”

The truck driver, a man in his 50s, was assessed by paramedics at the scene.

He was uninjured and and has since been taken to Ipswich Hosptial for further assessment.

Queensland Trucking Association CEO Gary Mahon said he was uncertain of the route approval process as the load was under police escort.

The turbine remains wedged beneath the Mount Crosby overpass. Picture: Facebook

Crews are going to use heavy tow trucks and potentially cranes to remove the turbine. Picture: Facebook/CamJay

“It’s not necessarily an usual load, there’s been a lot of wind turbines heading that way for some time now,” he told ABC Radio.

“Hundreds of these loads have gone west. We don’t know what’s gone wrong here, but we need to get to the bottom of it over the next couple of days.

“There is quite a bit of work to be done to get that piece of equipment out from under that overpass.”

He confirmed structural engineers are on their way to the scene.

About 6500 truck trips travel down the Warrego Highway each day, a road Mr Mahon described as a “vital link”.

“The Mount Crosby overpass has been certainly the subject of some significant consideration over the last couple of years … when you look at the general condition of the Warrego, that’s a corridor that needs quite a bit of work done to it,” he said.

“It’s probably the busiest corridor in the state.”

Local resident Rick said “a lot of money” had been spent building diversions around the bridge and widening roundabouts.

“How it got to be, with police escorts and pilot drivers, how it got (sic) to hit the bridge in the first place is just incredible,” he said.

“The bridge is the main connection from north back into Ipswich.

“(For) 20 years we’ve been fighting to get that bridge upgraded.”

Many took to social media to share their disbelief at the early morning debacle.

“That’s a bit of an expensive oopsie,” one commenter joked.

Another cheekily remarked “but Google (maps) said go straight”.

“What an idiot and what a huge traffic mess that’s going to be if the bridge is deemed structurally unsafe,” another wrote.

Many took to social media wondering why the driver didn’t follow oversized plan routes to avoid the overpass. Picture: Supplied

Another said: “Obviously someone didn’t do their homework on the height.”

“Like that traffic isn’t already a nightmare!” someone else wrote.

Many wondered why the driver had not followed oversized plan routes via the westbound roundabouts at Dinmore and Tivoli that allow trucks and other large vehicles to go around the bridge.

Plans for an upgrade at the Mount Crosby Road interchange are in the works, with construction expected to start in mid-2025.

As one local commented: “That’s one way to get a new bridge”.

Originally published as Warrego Highway: How truck carrying turbine smashed into bridge, causing traffic chaos