Bruce Highway crashes and condition a national disgrace, say Qld readers

Driving around ‘disgustingly large potholes’ on the day after her partner’s son was killed on the Bruce Highway, a Qld woman has joined hundreds of readers in describing the ‘goat track’ as a joke which is inflicting a lifetime of pain upon those left behind. JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Potholes emerging on the Bruce Highway near Mackay after rain. Picture: Heidi Petith

Imagine losing your own son in a crash on the Bruce Highway.

And then having to dodge ‘disgustingly huge potholes’ deep enough to pop tyres as you travel to where it happened.

Joel Betts a 32-year-old Chinchilla man tragically died in a crash on the Bruce Highway at Kolonga north of Gin Gin on Sunday, April 7.

Kylie joined hundreds of others in expressing their dismay over the state of the highway after this publication revealed almost half the Bruce Highway fails basic safety ratings and just 10 per cent is assessed as extremely safe, with stretches in regional Queensland emerging as the danger zones.

“Not only did we drive this from Brisbane way to Gladstone, we drove this the day after we got the call on Sunday the 7th of April 2024 that my partner’s son had died in a single vehicle accident at Kolonga south of Kalpower Road,’’ Kylie wrote.

“We drove around disgustingly huge potholes...”

Drivers are forced to negotiate deep potholes near the exit ramp to Maryborough off the Bruce Highway. Photo: Karleila Thomsen / Fraser Coast Chronicle

“Smaller cars would not stand a chance, they were that big or deep.

“Joel’s accident (was on) one of the worst stretches of the Bruce Highway but I believe this whole highway from Brisbane and north is a joke and something needs to be done.

“We don’t want another family feeling the way we do right now.

“There are hardly any rest stop areas, fatigue and the road cause so many accidents. Come on this has been a bad highway for so long and our main one for all of Queensland. Time to fix it!!”

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

Roseann

The Government of SE Queensland is only interested in the highway south of Gympie. The further north you go the worse it gets. Hardly any overtaking lanes north of Rockhampton, sections that every time it rains opens up with large potholes and is never permanently fixed – just patched after a few days and several cars tyres and front ends damaged. Section between Mackay and Sarina (especially Mackay to the Hay Point turn-off) is one of the worst black spot roads in the whole of Australia.

Around election time there is the usual talk about upgrading to dual carriageway but it is the same political hot air – nothing happens.

Meanwhile there is a 10 km section that has claimed about a dozen lives in the last 20 years.

How does the Government respond – reducing the speed limit to 90 km/h and regularly positioning the speed camera car in the section to trap unsuspecting motorists.

The Bruce Highway leading into Gordonvale has caution signs placed after rainfall in Far North Queensland.

Boswoz

I live in Mackay and travel the Bruce between Bowen and Rockhampton a lot. I am pleased to hear this is the worst section of the Bruce, because anything worse, will be 4WD vehicles only. Having worked in road construction in a few third world countries, the road construction crews we have here are pathetically slow. This is obviously driven by how our lazy, inefficient and very expensive CFMEU workforce who seem to spend more time standing around than working.

The roads around Mackay are littered with roadworks that just seem to go on and on.

I have been travelling north of Mackay for 10 weeks and witnessed a painting crew of four blokes take 8 weeks to paint a bridge railing, about 60 metres long. Allowing for drying of the special paint they use, this should have taken two blokes 4 days, tops. The CFMEU tax, hard at work

Ma&PaFarmers

The seat of Wide Bay has been a safe National Party seat for many, many decades and the National Party have been in government for most of the last 3 decades. The pretend maverick MP and ex copper has done nothing in his 8 years but complain about a tiny piece of highway near Tiaro. The regions keep voting for a party that refuses to spend money in their own electorates.

The Nationals don’t want to upset the inner city Liberals and demand that low paid, poor and impoverished regions should get safe roads. It is not just the highway in ex copper’s seat, his regional roads are all death traps and at a state level we are a very safe national party seat. So National Party seats get what they vote for. An inept government that has no power even when they are in a terrible marriage with inner city Liberals.

Roadworkers filling in potholes in drizzly conditions on the Bruce Highway south of Townsville.

Lester

Rockhampton to Mackay absolutely disgraceful. no overtaking lanes as well. North of Mackay throw that into the basket as well.

Karen

The Bruce Highway is a bloodbath. Millions of tons of freight along with mums and dads and retirees, all who have every right to use the infrastructure, sadly they are sharing a single lane that is in total state of disrepair.

Ben

The fact that our Sat Nav gave a warning north of Gympie to be cautious of pot holes ahead and work crews were out filling holes on Easter weekend tells you how crap the Bruce is. For those complaining about the location of the Olympic Stadium and we should be bold by spending billions for several weeks in 2032, take a drive north of Gympie through central Queensland and see where the many should be diverted.

Mel

The condition and safety of the Bruce Highway has deteriorated to the point where we prefer our university aged children to fly home from Brisbane rather than have them drive along the Bruce. Quite often I think about the way road construction funds have been concentrated in the southeast for so long, like lives and economy in the regions matter far less than votes to the incumbent government. It’s appalling

Bruce Highway near Myrtlevale riddled with potholes, posing a hazard to drivers.

Alan

Isn’t it amazing? The worst rated stretch is near Mackay the heart of the coal producing Bowen Basin where this government gets all its money?

June

The main highway through Qld is a disgrace and used by large trucks as well as cars and in a lot of cases only one lane each way, Meanwhile, as people are being killed we are prepared to spend millions of dollars, which we don’t have, on an Olympics which will only benefit Brisbane and feed the ego of the present government.

Forever Pending

I didn’t need any secret data to tell me how bad this highway is. I have driven the Bruce Highway from Brisbane to Cairns since I was eighteen and I am now seventy three and still drive between Brisbane and Townsville. Apart from improvements in the southeast and a few improvements in other areas, it is still the same old goat track.

BenR20

I travel the Bruce Highway between Marlborough and Gladstone 3 times a week, the road is potholed, rough and requires more overtaking lanes to cater for the large amount of mining and industry that use this worn out thoroughfare. Bring back Joh Bjelke Petersen, he might allow prisoners to Camp and deliver a proud product of new roads that we as Queenslanders could all be proud of.

Drivers navigate massive potholes on the Bruce Highway, near Babinda

Bryant

Lived in Queensland for 45 years now and in all that time, various govts have promised the moon to get this highway fixed all the way to North QLD. So far, we got the M1, the Gateway bridge and diversion up to Gympie.

At this rate, should be accomplished by 2199.

In the door in 2024

Just to put some context to the Bruce Highway, it’s about 1700 Klms long Brisbane to Cairns, the Pacific Highway from Sydney to Queensland border is about half the distance, it took about 30 years to complete that dual carriage with the support of a federal & state LNP governments over many years.

Kim

Poor, inattentive, speeding, impatient drivers cause accidents.......however, given that we have to accept the deplorable standard of driving we should probably separate the road lanes to at least stop head-on crashes … at an enormous cost of course that a near bankrupt Qld government can’t afford.

Gail

If you had driven on the Bruce Highway lately, as I have, it most definitely IS the road. We had to spend a fortune fixing our caravan, and also getting new tyres on our car, after a trip up to Cairns and back. The road truly is a disgrace. Politicians have been promising to fix it for the past 40 or 50 years – every election time – and it never happens.

Jill

The amount of heavy transport on our roads has grown exponentially due to an antiquated and poorly operated rail freight system. This increase in heavy road transport has lead to much faster pavement failure. Add to this the number of cars on the road and you have a recipe for disaster!

Phillip

There are three problems. First, our young people for many years have been told that they can do what they want without care for others, and this naturally extends to their driving. Second, the driving test is comparatively lenient and not thorough; they are tested around town then told to go out onto the highways and teach themselves how to handle high-speed traffic. Third, contracts are let out for road building on a “design and construct” basis, not a “design, construct, and maintain for ten years” basis. I am sure that if the builders had to maintain the roads at their own expense they would build better to start off with.

Chris

Maintain the rage people We have travelled this disgraceful highway many times and seen the frustration of truck drivers, caravanners and car drivers Frustration leads to accidents The single lane north of Gympie is bad enough, then having to contend with potholes and worn edges is appalling This is Queensland’s national highway!

Originally published as Bruce Highway crashes and condition a national disgrace, say Qld readers