Queensland’s ‘most despised’ road is anything but a surprise

The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) has released its biennial Unroadworthy Roads Survey, with the ‘winner’ named the state’s most despised road.

Based on submissions from motorists using Queensland’s roads, the RACQ found the approximately 1,700km Bruce Highway was the most complained about road, with 167 scathing feedback from road users.

The Bruce Highway starts at Bald Hills in Brisbane’s north and stretches all the way to Cairns, and consists of sections with just one lane in each direction, or up to four lanes when leaving the state capital.

In summary, motorists said the surface was rough and narrow, had few overtaking opportunities and could be prone to flooding, with certain areas in Wide Bay, Central and North Queensland attracting the most ire.

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RACQ head of public policy Dr Michael Kane said the results supported the car club’s Fix the Bruce campaign, which had the support of the Queensland Opposition in the run-up to this year’s election.

“The stretch between Childers and Gin Gin is the most dangerous, where you are almost ten times more likely to be involved in a fatal or serious accident than on the Hume Highway in NSW,” Dr. Kane.

“The Bruce is the backbone of our state, but it’s broken. So far this year, 30 people have been killed in accidents on the Bruce Highway – we’ve already exceeded the five-year average of 29 deaths and it’s only September.

“We need the state and federal governments to commit to a 10-year funding scheme to upgrade all poorly rated two-star sections of the highway.

“We also call on the Federal Government to return to the pre-existing 80:20 split of infrastructure funding with the State Government. This is a national highway and the federal government must do the hard work to bring it up to par with other national highways.”

Second only to the Bruce Highway was the Kennedy Highway, which finished just 11th in the latest Unroadworthy Roads Survey in 2022.

Despite a distance of approximately 35km, Mount Mee Road, north of Brisbane, received 52 complaints, which equates to more than 1.6 complaints per kilometre.

This road is popular with motorcyclists and has been criticized for being in a state of disrepair, with large gaps in the fast bends, a large number of blind bends and a lack of overtaking opportunities.

You can read more about the RACQ findings here.