General News
9 October, 2024
Critical Gulf bridge needs state and federal support: mayor
The Gilbert River bridge needs an urgent upgrade, says Etheridge Shire's Barry Hughes.
Gulf communities staring down the barrel of another wet season are demanding a commitment from the state and federal governments to replace a 70-year-old bridge that traps them in for weeks at a time.
Recently, the full contingent of the Far North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils and Regional Road and Transport Group descended on Etheridge Shire to conduct inspections of road improvement projects undertaken by the council workforce.
As part of the two-day road trip, high on the agenda was Gilbert River Bridge on the Gulf Development Road to see firsthand the impacts of closure due to flooding on a strategic piece of infrastructure.
Etheridge mayor Barry Hughes said Gilbert River Bridge going under had serious consequences for the Gulf communities of Croydon, Normanton, Karumba, Burketown and Doomadgee.
It is the lifeline that provides food, medicine, mail and fuel into the communities.
When the old, low and narrow bridge goes under, the Gilbert flows too fast to safely cross by boat and essential supplies have to be barged in or flown in.
Cr Hughes travelled with the group to explain the history of the bridge and to also alert the engineers present of the challenges presented when the bridge is submerged for up to a week at a time, completely closing the Gulf Development Road isolating the communities within the Gulf.
“The bridge was constructed in the late 1950s as a single lane access and is now completely inadequate to handle the volume of traffic and heavy transport demands to effectively service the supply chain both to and from the Gulf region,” he said.
“Ageing infrastructure is the elephant in the room when it comes to shortfalls in government funding throughout regional Queensland and the efforts of consecutive governments, both state and federal, have failed dismally to address this issue.
“Safety must come first and be prioritised to take that position at the forefront of decision makers leading into the State election.
“Band-aid measures no longer cut the mustard when it comes to community sentiment related to safety issues on major transport routes across the region, we need governments to address the shortfall in funding and allocate the necessary funds to improve the standards that have been so blatantly allowed to diminish over a long period of time.”
Cr Hughes said the recent catastrophic failure of the Routh Creek approach was a graphic illustration of the issue of ageing infrastructure and the risk of doing nothing was far too great to ignore.