I understand your view antiseptic, my words come from 22 years in road construction and repair then 10 as union official looking after the workers there.
One of the hidden costs came during my time in construction.
Once we found good gravel[ fill] on the roadside using as much as we liked.
And many of todays rest areas and truck stop came in to being after we used ex quarries.
These days ten truck load, and often a single day uses hundreds, of crushed road base is worth near twice the cost of traffic control that day.
Road building is complex and we too often, see coal face management knowing the end product will fail.
But, in NSW at least, recycled DMR.RTA/ failed engineers take their past failures to local government and continue, to fail.

The point is that things can be done better than they are now.

The "chain of responsibility" that applies within workplace health and safety legislation means that they won't be, because at every step there will be some minor manageralist saying "I don't want to be held accountable if something happens, so I'll put a process in place - that will cover my bum" and the ones given the job of implementing the process get told to never, ever deviate from it or great calamities will befall them. Nobody ever looks at the rules laid down and says "I think they're a bit restrictive so I'll change them to make them easier to live with", since that's asking for trouble if anything happens later, whether the process was at fault or otherwise.

So things keep getting more and more ridiculously process-bound and costs of compliance keep rising and workers are treated ever more like parts of a machine, while the public get frustrated and service levels decline.

On the subject of roadmaking materials, I have worked on jobs where they were being carted up to 300km from the nearest source. Even in central NSW, at Yass, material was being carted from as far as Marulan and in some cases further. The problem there is NIMBYism with respect to quarries, as well as the high cost of implementing processes for compliance with regulations when developing a quarry.

There are lots of old quarries on rural properties everywhere, but few are legally able to operate, when once they were a handy source of income for the cocky.

The rule of law is steadily being eroded in this country.

Why can’t our government simply strive to make the law and accepted behaviour match where they have become discrepant?

Surely this is of fundamental importance. You’ve got to think very poorly indeed of any government that doesn’t do this…. which appears to be every federal and state government that has been in power for the last few couple of decades at least.

The bullsh!t carry-on at roadworks sites all over the country could surely be easily remedied if the authorities just had it in their minds to do so!

It is absolutely terrible in Queensland. But it is even worse in South Australia, where they use 25kmh signs abundantly at roadworks! At least they never use anything less than 40 in Qld!

The same happens in NSW Ludwig. The short answer is because they (government) don't care. That is to say don't care any more than the average person (enough to do something about it). Send a 100 word Votergram into the Queensland Parliament identifying the problem areas and there is a good chance that they will start to care and rectify much of what angers you.Only cost you $19.80, not much for a more pleasant trip.

Luddy you know the answer to all your problems, you're just trying to avoid it.

Go get yourself a proper car. Something with rear wheel drive, 6 speed manual gearbox, low slung, & with a respectable bit of power, & NO MUD FLAPS.

Now you have those tailgaters at your mercy, particularly on those gravel road works.

Just a good squirt in second will throw enough gravel out back to have even the hardened tailgater dropping well back.

Now you can do a pendulum drive, swinging the tail right & left with little squirts of throttle, as long as you're on that gravel.

I don't doubt that just a couple of months of such fun, [if you still have a license] will have you complaining that there are not enough road works to play with. You'll be looking for gravel back roads to go play on.

I do remember being shocked when I discovered some years back that they had ripped up the 74Km of bitumen road from Woodenbong to Tenterfield, because the council could not afford the maintenance.

Faced with 74Km of deep loose dust, I almost went back. Once I started sliding around all the curves, I had a ball. Hadn't had so much fun since I sold the Brabham.

I did have to spend 2 days finding & elimination all the squeaks & rattles that bumpy run had developed in my old Triumph TR7, but it was worthy it. I hadn't driven like that for 30 years, & didn't know I still could.

I'm sure you could become addicted too.

Just put a cardboard replica of a TV camera at the Rockhampton end and Transport Minister Scott Emerson aka the Minister for Shameless Self-Promotion (MESS for short) will Segway along it in his turban for a photo opportunity, scattering media releases as he goes.

Last seen the frowning Scott was bravely castigating and blaming old people for all that is wrong on the roads and he will make them front up for annual health checks as the ultimate solution (the roads equivalent of '42'). As if seniors don't see the doctor enough already LOL

Yep, definitely the fault of those old prunes. They might not go on the road much or go far when they do, but they are definitely too slow, obeying the road rules as they are inclined to do!