TRUCKING’S FIRE FIGHT
It took until February 4 for Victoria’s eastern-most section of the Princes Highway to be made safe as VicRoads thinks possible. From that time, the whole of the coastal link from Sydney to Melbourne was fully open for road users including trucks.
It marked about four weeks of disruption along the route and, on the Victorian side, this was put down to an extraordinary effort by Regional Roads Victoria, the Australian Defence Force and the Department of Water, Land and Planning (DELWP), which led the multi-agency response that included Parks Victoria, Victoria Police, State Emergency Services and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.
“Geotechnical specialists, arborists, road workers and emergency services tackled the huge task which was made even more complex by the steep terrain, challenging conditions and unstable rock formations,” the state transport department noted.
“Over the last few weeks, arborists have been assessing and removing potentially deadly burnt trees, crews have cleared kilometres of debris and road workers have made emergency repairs to ensure the scorched road surface is safe to drive on.”
Geotechnical specialists, arborists, road workers and emergency services tackled the huge task.
The announcement came three days after the Monaro Highway reopened.
Teams were still working on other roads at time of writing –
