For those of you paying attention, I have some information from a source within the trucking industry locally regarding the bridge impact about 40 minutes West of Club Middo.
I wondered why everyone was quick to jump onboard, blaming the truck driver but there were (and still are) many questions to be answered. I did make comment that it could well have been an issue with the Pilot not making calls over the UHF CB.
Well, it turns out that these calls were made by both the Pilot AND the Police escort but these calls went unanswered and unacknowledged.
Once again, my source was quick to point out that this was not the drivers first “run” with this type of load, on this route. In fact, he had been taking these loads out (and coming home empty) in the immediate days prior to the incident.
Further speculation won’t be entered into on this site, but what I can say is that the Insurance bill may not cover everything. For this, you’ve got the cost of the wind generator mast being disassembled, then the tow/removal of both the remainder of the load and the truck and the damage to the bridge, which has been extensive*.
My source also told me that The Queensland Government charge people $175,000 PER HOUR for any Highway closure. This truck was there roughly 36 hours. Even my tiny calculator can work out that’s a bill of $6.3MILLION ALONE! And I don’t know if this includes closure or partial closure of the traffic crossing over the bridge is included in that figure. If so, the bill will compound exponentially because, after the impact, it took Queensland Transport and Main Roads a good couple of days to asses the structure of the bridge and open one lane of the bridge. It took them a lot longer to open the Southbound direction of the bridge to traffic!
Wowsers!
Now, I highlighted the damage to the bridge. Let me be clear on this point, it has been widely reported that this bridge was nearing the end of it’s life, anyway. A new bridge was in the Feasibility Study phase of replacement, and now the Ipswich City Council is asking the Queensland State Government to now faast-track the replacement and, with this as an opportunity, it may well be the push the State Government needs. But I doubt it.
Anyway, I will keep updating this as and when interesting news comes about.