UNROADWORTHY ROADS SURVEY 2011 Author: Traffic and Safety Department, The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland Limited Date: June 2011 The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland Ltd ii TABLE OF CONTENTS UNROADWORTHY ROADS SURVEY 2011 ................................................................................................. I LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ III LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................................... III EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................. IV 1.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Aims .................................................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 2 2.0 RESULTS ............................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Regional Distributions ......................................................................................................................... 3 2.3 Road Authority Distributions ............................................................................................................... 4 2.4 Worst Roads – Top 20 State Roads & National Network Highways, Top 10 Local Roads ................ 4 2.5 Distributions According to TMR Regions ............................................................................................ 8 2.6 Road Problems ................................................................................................................................... 9 2.7 Solutions to Problems ....................................................................................................................... 10 2.8 Road Surface .................................................................................................................................... 11 2.9 Time of Problem ................................................................................................................................ 11 2.10 Roads damaged due to flooding ..................................................................................................... 11 2.11 Comparison of 2011 with previous Unroadworthy Roads surveys ................................................. 12 3.0 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................... 15 4.0 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................... 16 APPENDIX A - ROAD AHEAD ARTICLES ..................................................................................................... 17 APPENDIX B - DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT AND MAIN ROADS REGIONS WITH REPORTED UNROADWORTHY ROADS ............................................................................................................................ 21 APPENDIX C - LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES WITH REPORTED UNROADWORTHY ROADS ........... 22 APPENDIX D - CODED OPTIONS FOR UNROADWORTHY ROADS .............................................................. 23 APPENDIX E - SUMMARY OF “UNROADWORTHY” ROADS ......................................................................... 24 Unroadworthy Roads Survey – June 2011 Traffic and Safety Department The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland Ltd iii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Top 20 Worst State Roads and National Network Highways ....................................................... 5 Table 2.1 Top 20 Worst State Roads and National Network Highways (continued). .................................. 6 Table 2.2 Top 10 Worst Local Roads ........................................................................................................... 7 Table 2.3 Comparison of Regional & Authority Distributions Responses for 2001, 2005, 2008 & 2011 ... 12 Table 2.4 Ranking of problems for 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2011 ................................................................ 12 Table 2.5 Ranking of solutions for 2001, 2005, 2008 and 2011................................................................. 13 Table 2.6 State / national network roads featuring prominently in past and present surveys .................... 14 Table 2.7 Local government roads featuring prominently in past and present surveys ............................. 14 Table B1 List of TMR Regions .................................................................................................................. 21 Table C1 List of Local Government Authorities (incl. TMR Region they fall within) .................................. 22 Table D1 Coded Road Surface Options ..................................................................................................... 23 Table D2 Coded Time of Problem Options ................................................................................................ 23 Table D3 Coded Problems and Supplementary Problems ........................................................................ 23 Table D4 Coded Solutions and Supplementary Solutions ......................................................................... 23 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Regional Distribution of Total Responses ................................................................................. 3 Figure 2.2 Regional Distribution of Roads.................................................................................................. 3 Figure 2.3 Authority Distributions of Total Responses ............................................................................... 4 Figure 2.4 Authority Distributions of Roads ................................................................................................ 4 Figure 2.5 Proportion of Responses for each TMR Region by Road Authority ......................................... 8 Figure 2.6 Proportion of Local Roads, State Roads and National Highways by TMR Region .................. 8 Figure 2.7 Accumulated Responses for Each Road Problem .................................................................... 9 Figure 2.8 Accumulated Responses for Each Solution ............................................................................ 10 Figure 2.9 Accumulated Responses for Each Road Surface ................................................................... 11 Figure 2.10 Accumulated Responses for Times when Conditions are Worst ............................................ 11 Figure 2.11 Accumulated Responses for road damage due to flooding… .... ………………………………12 Figure A1 Introductory Article and Survey Form ..................................................................................... 18 Figure A3 Follow Up Article Presenting Results ..................................................................................... 20 Unroadworthy Roads Survey – June 2011 Traffic and Safety Department The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland Ltd iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report gives details from results compiled in the 2011 state wide RACQ “Unroadworthy Roads Survey”. The survey asked respondents to supply information on roads perceived to be in a poor or inadequate condition, unfit for the function they are designed to perform and not providing an acceptable level of service to the road user. Of the 2174 total responses received which highlighted 507 different “unroadworthy” roads, the information was sorted to establish the worst roads (based on number of responses). The worst state main roads and national highways generating the most responses were: 1. Bruce Highway - Wide Bay Region (approx. Cooroy to Gin Gin); 2. Warrego Highway - Darling Downs Region (approx. Toowoomba to Miles); 3. Bruce Highway - Fitzroy Region (approx. Miriam Vale to Marlborough); 4. Bruce Highway - Northern Region (approx. Ayr to Ingham); and 5. Bruce Highway - Far North Region (approx. Ingham to Cairns) The Bruce Highway again attracted the most number of nominations (473) for a single road in Queensland, similar to previous surveys. In fact all six sections of the Bruce Highway from Brisbane to Cairns featured in the Top 10 worst state and national network roads. Similar to previous surveys, the Warrego Highway featured heavily again (321 nominations) with all three sections from Ipswich to Charleville making the Top 10 worst state and national network roads. With a combined tally of nine sections nominated in the Top 10, motorists are obviously frustrated of the poor condition of these two highways which are in urgent need of major improvements. Respondents identified similar issues along much of the Bruce Highway with the major problems highlighting the rough and narrow road surface with poor road shoulders, a lack of overtaking