THE Burdekin Shire Council may have to give serious consideration to doing something about safety issues involving the increasing amount of traffic that is bypassing Ayr by turning off the Bruce Highway north of Brandon and travelling via Maidavale, Ivory and McDesme Roads to rejoin the Highway just north of the Burdekin Bridge.
The traffic is comprised of not just local vehicles, as the numerous cars and caravans, semi-trailers and many other travellers gives an indication that they are being directed around the “bypass route” by the technology that is now available through GPS facilities within phones these days.
One of the biggest problems with the route is the winding narrow road through Plantation Creek on McDesme Road, with many drivers totally ignoring the “Give Way” sign that control south-bound traffic through that section of road.
We haven’t heard of any accidents up to now—but that does not mean that an incident may not occur unless council either moves the “Give Way” sign further up the road, makes it larger and more visible to drivers or paints the sign on the bitumen surface so it can be more easily seen.
The best safety improvement would be to build a new high level bridge parallel to the cane railway bridge beside the road—but the cost of that exercise would obviously not be too acceptable to Burdekin ratepayers without much-needed input from state and federal governments.
It seems so easy to build connections over and under the Brisbane River these days—surely the same could be done in the north as well?? Safety is the biggest problem and if the traffic numbers keep increasing, something will definitely have to be done in the not-too-distant future.
