I think there is a contradiction of term in the title of this thread..
It is only for the QLD travellers, but let me be straight to the point here...
Other than a few bits of km of Hwy here and there, Queensland in 2025 still have no REAL roads, at least, compare to the rest of the country..
In the bush the most common term for a QLD road is "tarmac track" as in some bitumen has been spray on the dirt track, and presto. Now we call that a road...
I'm sure you have all witness the mushroom of tarmac popping out in the road from time to time.. Or perhaps the grass growing in the middle of the road, or the corner of the road tilted the opposite direction of the corner, or the 5 different lumps of road where the rain can easily build up on without having any chance to run away as the edges are higher.. That's what happen when you don't use ballast and the ground is soft, like in QLD. Therefore, we shouldn't call those roads..
Most bush people will also tell you that a dirt graded track is a million time better and safer than most tarmac track in QLD.
The easy way to fix all this according to QLD is to put up a sign that warns you of the damaged road... Fixing it instead?!?.... HA HA HA Don't be naive...
How true. I just watched a Youtube video on the Coffs Harbour by pass and it is truly amazing what they have done in a few years. I live in Mayborough QLD and we have had talk now of a Tiaro bypass for about 8 years now. This bypass would be about 10k's maximum over flat ground but QLD can't get it done. The town is a major traffic jam every school holidays with a 50k speed limit and a set of traffic lights for a pedestrian crossing and this is the Bruce Highway. When I see what NSW has done in the last 10 years with the highway now 4 lanes from Tweed Heads to Sydney I ashamed of QLD tracks/roads
How true. I just watched a Youtube video on the Coffs Harbour by pass and it is truly amazing what they have done in a few years. I live in Mayborough QLD and we have had talk now of a Tiaro bypass for about 8 years now. This bypass would be about 10k's maximum over flat ground but QLD can't get it done. The town is a major traffic jam every school holidays with a 50k speed limit and a set of traffic lights for a pedestrian crossing and this is the Bruce Highway. When I see what NSW has done in the last 10 years with the highway now 4 lanes from Tweed Heads to Sydney I ashamed of QLD tracks/roads
I was just talking to a road grader council guy last week in WA, and he also was originally from QLD.. He was the one that pointed out to me that the main reason why QLD has no roads yet, was because they try to build them the same way as the rest of the country, but QLD has a completely different soil. Without a proper ballast to support the weight of the vehicles, it will never happen..
But I don't entirely buy that, because NWS has also a similar soil especially up north and yet, the roads are from good to great... Even secondary roads are well looked after.. In QLD most secondary road are still one line with tarmac in the centre and two dirt shoulders to drive in for the oncoming traffic.. Then bang, a new crack in the windscreen...
It comes down to cost I guess, but the way we are going, it is simply a false sense of economy.. Paying people to stay on the side of the road with a shovel with a bit of tarmac in it, just to fill the pothole and then having to wait for a car to drive past on top of it and compacted the tarmac for them, it is not the safest or cheapest way to go.. It is all for fun until someone gets hurt. Then, as we often say, we cross that bridge when we get there..
Same way you need at least 3 to 4 (sometimes 6) people killed in an intersection on the Hwy, before we get an upgrade to make it safe...
-- Edited by Burt65 on Saturday 19th of July 2025 11:58:14 AM
I was just talking to a road grader council guy last week in WA, and he also was originally from QLD.. He was the one that pointed out to me that the main reason why QLD has no roads yet, was because they try to build them the same way as the rest of the country, but QLD has a completely different soil. Without a proper ballast to support the weight of the vehicles, it will never happen..
But I don't entirely buy that, because NWS has also a similar soil especially up north and yet, the roads are from good to great... Even secondary roads are well looked after.. In QLD most secondary road are still one line with tarmac in the centre and two dirt shoulders to drive in for the oncoming traffic.. Then bang, a new crack in the windscreen...
The sub soils in NSW are far more stable than the worst of the Old roads like the Flinders Hwy, Warrego Hwy and many other roads. It does not matter how you ballast those roads, the subsoil still moves under the ballast. The railway tracks that follow the Flinders are extremely well ballasted, but it still moves. Each time I went to Hughenden I used to see rail equipment in the station precinct that was used to regularly lift the lines to keep them straight and level. Each time I travelled the Flinders, I would see some of that equipment redoing the lines somewhere along the length of it. It takes a whole train of equipment to maintain the rail-road, the trouble is, those techniques do not work with bitumen roads. The only way to maintain them is to periodically dig them up and relay the bitumen surface.
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I was just talking to a road grader council guy last week in WA, and he also was originally from QLD.. He was the one that pointed out to me that the main reason why QLD has no roads yet, was because they try to build them the same way as the rest of the country, but QLD has a completely different soil. Without a proper ballast to support the weight of the vehicles, it will never happen..
But I don't entirely buy that, because NWS has also a similar soil especially up north and yet, the roads are from good to great... Even secondary roads are well looked after.. In QLD most secondary road are still one line with tarmac in the centre and two dirt shoulders to drive in for the oncoming traffic.. Then bang, a new crack in the windscreen...
The sub soils in NSW are far more stable than the worst of the Old roads like the Flinders Hwy, Warrego Hwy and many other roads. It does not matter how you ballast those roads, the subsoil still moves under the ballast. The railway tracks that follow the Flinders are extremely well ballasted, but it still moves. Each time I went to Hughenden I used to see rail equipment in the station precinct that was used to regularly lift the lines to keep them straight and level. Each time I travelled the Flinders, I would see some of that equipment redoing the lines somewhere along the length of it. It takes a whole train of equipment to maintain the rail-road, the trouble is, those techniques do not work with bitumen roads. The only way to maintain them is to periodically dig them up and relay the bitumen surface.
If there is a will, there is always a way! History has been teaching us that... Soil movement, while an issue, is not the main reason why in 2025 we still have no ROAD in QLD.
We have railroads in QLD? (sarcasm). Railroad is another sad state of affair.. You are referring to what we call the Tamping Machine..
