With the effects of Cyclone Yasi and the nationwide
floods still coming to light, this could be an opportune
time to carefully examine our national road-building
methods and consider how we can really get full value for
our money.

The regular occurring costs of repairs and maintenance on
the nation`s roads is reaching staggering proportions, due
in the main to the very POOR standard of road construction
initially.

It is time to plan ahead and consider the most efficient
way to utilize the nation`s funding to acheive reliable,
sound, long-lasting construction whilst giving the best
possible return for this expenditure, which itself will
be somewhat astronamical in the long term.

At the present time, our major road construction work in
Queensland is carried by private contractors. Like all
private enterprise, net profit is the governing factor,
thus a project costing the taxpayers millions of dollars,
but a very poor result in terms of longevity, is the norm
for today`s construction methodology!

It is now time to construct roads and highways with REAL
and SOUND foundations, preferably concrete base with a
much better topping of rubberized bitumen with a realistic
surface thickness, that itself will not corrugate in the
heat of our Summer, whenever a heavy vehicle travels over it.

The cost of a GOOD job will be astronomical initially, but
the cost in savings of maintenance in the long term will
justify the outlay, and should provide a reliable national
link across the nation.

An excellent thread Crackup and one that many people over the past couple of weeks would be pondering.

I am still wondering if my favourite transport interest for our future [the VFT] will ever see the light of day before I depart Crackup.

A Very Fast Train built on elevated land with Lines made of the highest grade metal to withstand most weather events, assisting and saving lives at the commencement of floods, fires and transporting essential groceries, medical personnel, SES and defence personnel into cities and towns after disasters, a mode of transport that I have plugged for 12 years that government state [and Economists view] as a taxpayer waste of funds.

Taxpayers apparently prefer air and vehicle travel in comparison to a VFT that could save lives, assist lives in crises, boost our tourism, create more jobs and stimulate our economy in other ways.

The days have gone for reliance upon road travel and air alone, particularly during natural disasters and holiday periods.

Getting a VFT funded, built, up and running would see many positives for our country and should have been funded and built ten years ago when our population skyrocketed and prior to these El Nina symptoms and effects displayed.

Sadly I cannot see how our Economy will now be able to fund any major infrastructure until we innovate and export a great deal over the next three years.

Correction Crackup, read far too much literature on fiery volatile "La Nina" mixing Nina up with her more placid dry boyfriend, "El Nino" ..........now they have joined together for a song and dance in VIC!

Gentle men you have landed on my veranda.
Holding a discussion about subject dear to my heart.
My first road job was as a not yet 16 year old posing as 18.
Many jobs followed living in tin shed ,long before dongas, then 22 years with what started as main roads Bord turned to DMR then RTA, in the lost style of the public service and NSW and its sleeping master it has changed yet again.
Consider these truths.
Our country has less tax payers than some single America city's.
We have a truly great deal more dirt roads, and massive lengths of main roads.
So my time in RTA opened yet another door, from building the road driving the plant I was taken in to the inner sanctum, learned the other side.
I have built box culverts that had been approved twenty years before.
Here are the facts ,once a road building team could take material from roadside hills, manufacturing rest areas as a by product.
Consider this,do we build ten ks off great road or 100 klm of Fair road?
We see if we look America roads fall apart in flood we see if we look poor quality country and highway roads not just the great ones.
continued.

Actually gentlemen we do well we build good roads what we can afford to, consider this,if we wanted American roads, roads that still fail what would it cost.
How would we find the money,more than our gross national income for decades build your roads and they would still not always stand up to nature.
My RTA fails most, and always in not explaining its mission, not telling of its plans and costs.
And why we have not got fly overs at every side road,we can not afford it.
NSW saw an NRMA survey,it lambasted the Pacific highway as our worst road,yet it death toll has plummeted after so much brand new top quality roads.
Just twenty years ago, this 50kil section saw 23 deaths a year 3 that took 4 lives in one week.
It left horrible dreams forever in my teams minds, but we saw most smash retrievers go broke after.
Understand please a road worker has Monday morning experts on his/her back 24/7 they now are contractors but the roads are ok.

We are in a bind. Bitumen, which I understand is the last thing out
of the refinery, will become increasingly expensive.
We-are-unique will I am afraid go to his maker disappointed.
The VFT is a pipe dream. We just cannot afford it.
It requires dead straight and level track so a whole new permway is
needed. The present track was laid using horses and scoops so they
went around hills instead of through them as is done today with earth
moving machines.
We need to spend the money that we have on refurbishing the railways
and reopenning many of the closed lines.

Getting back to roads, I see that in the US they are turning bitumen
roads back to gravel because they cannot afford the maintenance.
The states are running very short of money with the petrol tax income
falling with less fuel being consumed, plus other income also falling.

Might that be a vision of the future ?