The New England Higway proved not up to the task of carrying Sydney to Brisbane traffic diverted after flooding forced the closure of the Pacific Highway last week.
Broken axles, damaged tyres and wheels, and dangerous road conditions have been widely reported the length of the New England Highway from as far south as Scone and as far north as Warwick. Dozens of people were spotted changing tyres after hitting massive crater-like potholes in the road, and social media exploded with people warning friends and neighbours of long patches where the road was simply unusable, and advising swerving on to the wrong side of the road – or off the road – was the only sensible thing to do.
There have also been an extraordinary number of accidents, including one that took the life of a 30 year old truck driver near Warwick.
Damage to the road was to be expected given the extraordinary increase in traffic and persistent rain, but many are shocked at how quickly the road deteriorated, pointing to insufficient maintenance of the main alternative route connecting Sydney and Brisbane, with it getting worse the further you get away from the capital cities.
Paul Gogarty, a 25 year veteran long haul truck driver who was behind the wheel of a b-double when he was diverted inland, said he was disgusted with the state of the road and would never visit the New England again because of how bad the roads were.
“Your local member needs throwing out of his electorate for letting the highway get that bad.”
“I don’t reckon there’s been any real maintenance for years.”
“The road was that shiny, particularly going up those hills, the wheels were spinning. It was like glass.”
He said that he saw people fixing potholes around Singleton, but once past the Upper Hunter and in to the New England, he saw no repair work, and no warning signs.
“North from the Murrurundi Range to the border, it was just like nobody cared.”
Paul said a very large hole near the weighbridge just north of Willow Tree remained in a dangerous state for days.
“I left Taree on Wednesday morning and went past there, and there were three cars on the side of the road with blown out rims and tyres.”
“I went to Brisbane, back to Sydney, back to Brisbane and the hole was still there, unsealed. No one cared.”
Steve Subritsky, a tourist from New Zealand, was also diverted via the New England Highway in his travels from Newcastle to Brisbane. He says the New England Highway was “a lot worse than NZ roads”.
“We have been doing a high speed slalom dodging pot holes, hundreds of them, rather tiring.”
“The pot holes were so spread out and so many that at times we were almost on the wrong side of the road avoiding them. Very dangerous.”
A number of other tourists happy travelling posts on social media comments on the shocking number of potholes and having to swerve to avoid them.
Roxanne Bancroft-Stuart was one of those who suffered damage from the poor road conditions.
“Going to Armidale yesterday I hit a pot hole. Blew a tyre and $220 dollars later. Who helps with this?”
“At the tyre place I was the eighth one this morning,” she said.
Simon Davis broke an axle near the Saumarez Creek Bridge, and also wants to know who pays.
“The road is just trashed, so dangerous,” he said.
“There was more hole than road, there was no way to avoid it. I obviously hit it at a bad angle, bit unlucky, but I don’t know where I was supposed to swerve to – you really couldn’t miss it without leaving the road.”
“You can’t live out here without a car. Who pays for my repairs?”
Trains North Vice President Margaret O’Connor said the huge surge in trucks and vehicles diverted from the flooded coastal M1 created chaos, ripping up already water damaged pavement on the New England Highway.
“The road between Armidale and Guyra is in tatters, with motorists who depend on it for daily local transport in dismay about the dangerous road conditions.”
“Ordinary commuters are putting their lives at risk trying to dodge giant pot holes and stripped out bitumen sections,” she said.
The group estimated 7000 vehicle movements passing the Black Mountain service station
between Armidale and Guyra at night – more than a truck a minute, and many of them heavy B-Doubles – a load that the road was simply unable to bear.
“Obviously our hearts go out to those devastated by extreme floods on the Mid North Coast,
said Mrs O’Connor, “but we are counting the cost of flooding too, in the massive damage being
done to our critical road pavements by the large number of trucks and cars forced to
divert from the flooded coast road to the New England Highway.”
The group is calling for the Federal and State Government get together and include a re-opened Main North Rail line as a key part of a “fit for the future logistics network”. The rail line north of Armidale has been closed for many years.
“We need to get ordinary freight off roads and back onto rail,” she said.
“Our precious road pavement needs to be reserved for lighter passenger traffic and time critical freight, like urgent medical transport, with rail doing more of the heavy lifting on less time pressured services.”
“There is simply inadequate redundancy built into our transport system as this Mid North Coast disaster, and others before it, has clearly demonstrated.”
A spokesperson for Transport for NSW urged drivers to be patient and delay any non-essential travel.
“We’re advising all road users to expect continued delays as the extreme weather takes a toll on the road and transport network.”
“Our focus is always to prioritise safety for all road users, effectively assess the damage and re-open the roads and rail lines that will keep freight moving,” they said.
“Assessments of damage and repairs, including to alternate freight routes, will be made once Transport for NSW teams are able to do so safely.”
Transport for NSW and the NSW Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison have been asked a number of questions regarding maintenance and repairs of the New England Highway, with the Transport for NSW media team saying they will reply later in the week as their priority was dealing with the ongoing flood crisis.
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