Major freight route the Bruce Highway has taken out an unenviable gong after the Royal Automotive Club of Queensland (RACQ)’s 2024 Unroadworthy Roads Survey found it to be the state’s most despised road.
The survey asks responders to rank their least favourite roads to drive on based on potholes, a lack of overtaking lanes and its propensity to flood.
RACQ head of public policy Dr Michael Kane says the results are disappointing but not surprising, with the survey providing more evidence that urgent action is needed from both the Queensland and federal government to fix the Bruce Highway.
“We’ve been running our Unroadworthy Roads Survey for more than two decades and the Bruce Highway has either been the worst or second worst road every time,” Kane says.
“Rough surfaces, such as potholes, were the most common issue highlighted by Queensland motorists, followed by poor shoulders, narrow lanes, lack of overtaking lanes and sections prone to flooding.”
In the survey, 167 responses labelled the Bruce Highway the most unroadworthy road, with the Kennedy Highway coming in second with 85 responses due to its narrow, rough, winding and slippery nature. In third, Mount Mee Road received 52 responses.
When it comes to the Bruce Highway, the single-lane, undivided sections from Gympie to Childers, Gladstone to Proserpine and Townsville to Cairns received the most complaints, with Kane saying rural sections of the highway have an average ‘per kilometre travelled’ fatal or serious injury (FSI) crash rate that is three times higher than rural sections of the Pacific Highway and five times higher than the Hume Highway’s rural sections.
“The stretch between Childers and Gin Gin is the most dangerous, where you are almost 10 times more likely to be involved in a fatal or serious injury crash than on the Hume Highway in NSW,” he says.
This survey is allowing the RACQ to call on both state and federal governments to work together to fix the Bruce ahead of upcoming elections.
“The Bruce is the backbone of our state, but it’s broken. So far this year, 30 people have lost their life in crashes on the Bruce Highway – we’ve already surpassed the five-year average of 29 deaths and it’s only September,” Kane says.
“We need the state and federal governments to commit to a 10-year funding arrangement to upgrade all poorly rated 2-star sections of the highway.
“We’re also calling for the federal government to return to the pre-existing 80:20 infrastructure funding spilt with the state government. This is a national road, and the federal government must do the heavy lifting to bring it up to standard with other national highways.”
The Kennedy Highway surged into second in the 2024 survey after finishing 11th in 2022, while the Brisbane Valley Highway finished narrowly behind Mount Mee Road with 40 responses.
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