I was pleased to attend an important national address in Canberra yesterday by the Hon. Catherine King MP, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. The Minister’s comments around building more resilient transport infrastructure were very timely, coming in the same week RA released our submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the resilience of our road network.
The last several years have starkly illustrated the impact that climate change is having on transport infrastructure. Through both fires and floods, there has been significant and costly damage inflicted on Australia’s road networks right across the country.
The effects are obvious – from a pothole epidemic following floods in the eastern states to the destruction of the Fitzroy River bridge in WA’s Kimberley region, isolating communities and wreaking havoc on supply chains.
The increased frequency and severity of these events means the Australian road community now has to rethink the previous views on the road networks’ exposure, vulnerability and acceptable condition.
RA’s submission to the Federal Parliament’s Inquiry into the Implications of Severe Weather Events on the National Regional, Rural and Remote Road Network makes a series of recommendations designed to adapt to this new reality, including enhanced design standards, dealing with the national road maintenance backlog and ensuring our disaster funding criteria permits roads to be ‘built back better’.
This is an important issue for our industry and the wider community – and RA will stay actively engaged with this inquiry as it progresses.
For more, see our media release or download the submission.
Michael Kilgariff
Chief Executive Officer