By Ruza Zivkusic | November 18, 2011The Great Northern Highway between Perth and Wubin needs urgent attention to bring the road up to standard and address a lack of rest areas, the West Australian Road Transport Association (WARTA) says.
The WARTA says floods earlier this year exposed a shortage of truck parking areas and too few quality facilities to allow drivers to rest.
“The lack of basic infrastructure – toilets, rest areas and roadhouses are all in need of major investment and this is so important if the mining industry expects truck drivers and companies to continue supplying them in a manner in which they currently experience,” the group says.
The ever increasing size of equipment and infrastructure that is moved to the mining areas throughout the state makes the drive harder, it adds.
“Added to this is the apparent lack of foresight by construction companies who build these impressive pieces of engineering but fail to advise their requirements of transportation to the end user.
“This, in turn, is causing issues with the heavy over-size and over mass-vehicles gaining the necessary approvals within the desired timescale.”
The WARTA has recently met with the state’s government, police and the mining industry to raise its concerns, describing the first meeting successful.
It says Transport Minister Troy Buswell is taking the matters seriously, adding that it expects changes to make the lot of truck drivers better.
The WARTA has also praised Main Roads for addressing the delays in obtaining permits, but is looking to the construction and engineering sector to do more to make sure equipment can easily be transported.
“The issues that the transport industry has been facing are finally being considered by those who can make the changes, however we are still in the hands of outside parties and this is where frustrations arise,” it says.
