Dozens of trucks have been stopped for several days after a key freight route across WA’s Midwest sustained significant floodwater damage.
About 150 metres of road washed away after more than 100mm of rain fell in around Mullewa, 100km east of Geraldton, over the weekend.
It triggered the closure of the Geraldton-Mount Magnet road, a key freight route connecting smaller communities and mine sites with the state’s second-largest regional city.
State Opposition leader Shane Love said the closure highlighted the need for better investment and maintenance of regional roads, particularly those being used for heavy traffic.
Mr Love said about eight trucks were stranded at the floodwaters, while 60 to 70 fully loaded trucks were stopped in various locations across the Murchison waiting for the road to reopen.
“There is no other way of getting in to port from through the other road networks for quad road trains,” he said.
“The road was not built with this level of traffic in mind in my opinion, and we are seeing the consequences of that not just in this flooding but you see failed sections of the road needing to be repaired constantly.”
Truckies, miners frustrated
Western Roads Federation chief executive Cam Dumesny confirmed the stranded truck numbers, and said drivers were frustrated and wanted to get on their jobs and back home to their families.
Mr Love said queries in parliament had revealed a business case was in the works to upgrade the Geraldton to Mt Magnet Road.
“The road itself does need to be upgraded if those numbers of trucks are going to be sustained in the future, we are told there is even more traffic coming on that road in the future,” he said.
“We need to do better than just have this very lightly built piece of road being used for such heavy traffic without there being serious investment into ensuring we have safety for the people on the road.”
Fenix Resources hauls iron ore from north of Cue to port at Geraldton, running 30 trucks on the road at any one time.
Chairman John Welborn said two thirds of the of the company’s trucks had been stopped on the east side of the road crossing.
He agreed roads need to be well maintained to accommodate vehicles like the 65 metre, 200 tonne fully loaded quad road trains Fenix operate.
“We’re licensed to use those on the particular roads that we operate on, they are suitable for that purpose and Main Roads licence them on that basis,” he said.
Mr Welborn made a distinction between his company’s approved transport task and other road users causing ‘uncontrolled damage’ to some roads.
Main Roads WA temporarily re-opened the road on Tuesday afternoon allowing some traffic through, but the road then closed on Tuesday evening. It re-opened Wednesday morning with extreme caution and traffic management on site.
Main Roads is expected to continue to monitor the road and carry out necessary repairs to the damaged section when possible.
The ABC requested an interview with transport Minister Rita Saffioti, the minister was unavailable.
A state government spokesperson said major pavement repairs to remediate the majority of defects on the Geraldton-Mount Magnet Road were completed in April this year, while $15 million was recently invested to install safety treatments to more than 70km of the road.
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