Question details
Morwell electorate
(472) My constituency question is for the Minister for Roads and Road Safety. The information I seek is why didn’t the Labor government raise the causeway on Tyers Road during the build of the new Latrobe River bridge. After waiting nine years for a new bridge, valley residents rightly rejoiced when it opened just before Christmas, but three weeks later it was under water again. After only moderate rainfall, the Latrobe River burst its banks, spilling over the road and flooding the causeway to the south of the bridge. It was deja vu for road users, who had been telling the Labor government for decades that a new Tyers bridge would be useless if the causeway was not raised, because it would still flood. It took 400 days to build the bridge, and still Labor could not get it right. After years of community consultation and planning, after spending $10 million on the project, we are in the same position as we were 10 years ago, with a road that still will flood and a bridge that still will be constantly shut. Minister, it is now time for you to fix this mess and deliver a Tyers bridge the residents can actually use.
I thank the community for their patience during the work to replace the Traralgon Tyers Road bridge over the Latrobe River. The old bridge was supported by timber piles and piers and had deteriorated to a point where a 30-tonne load limit had been imposed, until it was damaged by flood water and closed in late 2022. While the steel safety barriers on the new bridge are now being installed, the new bridge was opened on 23 December 2023.
Improvements to the road have also been made to make it more resilient to flooding, allowing the road to be re-opened faster when it is intermittently impacted by flooding. An asphalt surface has been used in key areas to help minimise impacts on the road surface from wet weather and flood water. New culverts have also been constructed under the road to help with water flow and drainage.
Raising the road level along the causeway was investigated early in planning for the project but ultimately not adopted because a longer bridge would have been required to mitigate the impact of upstream flooding. A higher road would have also been required which, among other impacts, would have had a significantly greater impact on protected Strzelecki gum trees.
Hon Melissa Horne MP
Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation
Minister for Local Government
Minister for Roads and Road Safety
Minister for Ports and Freight