The same has happened on the Bass Highway.

Earlier this year traffic was disrupted for weeks on end while interstate contractors also ‘re-surfaced’ parts of the Bass Highway.

The winter rains came along and the whole lot started lifting. The original road underneath didn’t, so it was the new surface which alone failed.

Is the Bartlett Labor Government going to order the contractors return to fix their mess, which cost us many many $millions, and do the job they were paid properly?

Highways degrade without maintenance including renewal.

When the highways were built by the Department of Main Roads they seemed to last longer although they also took longer to construct.

It would be interesting to survey the ages of the areas failing under current axle loadings and traffic volumes taking into account the underlying geology and the rainfall.

However it does not put aside the quick fix election coming up mentality that governments us to apppeal to the muddled and confused.

Perhaps the government plans to overlay a gripping layer before the frosts return to the susceptible part of the highway although with Sturgo in charge he may not have considered that.

Even if the government announced such a plan you cannot trust they will achieve the result after the misjudgement of the impact of the GFC, if that was what happened, the closure of a Department whose name cannot be said, and now reinstatment of flow to the rivers of cash but not of the Department whose name cannot be said.