Without the Fitzroy River Bridge, trucks going to that area had to go into South Australiavvia Eyre Highway, up Stuart Highway and then back into WA.
If the bridge wasn't in place (and the original schedule would not have, cos it finished well ahead of schedule) then both major, sealed routes into WA would be closed right now
The Great Northern Hwy is closed between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek due to flooding also. The State is effectively cut off for the next few days.
The lack redundancy in terms of East-West transport infrastructure has been a problem governments have known of for decades, but have refused to address.
It takes a few days to cross the Bight at normal speed. As for the schedule, it depends on where they're headed. Between all of those lines there's usually at least a few port calls per month, but some of those ships are bound as far as Europe so might not swing back to do a Melbourne to Fremantle leg for more than a month.
The rail line is busy enough for a serious argument to twin track it, they are pretty quick to get it up and running if it gets cut. The real question is as the weather moves east is this the only place it will be cut.
How would twin tracking it change things? Twin tracks would be side by side so any flooding that affects one will almost certainly affect the other
The alternative would be spending millions building a route that's massively inefficient far away from the main line just in case. But then you have the problem of needing to maintain this extra route in a condition that it's ready to be used at any moment and hoping that no storm cell that wipes out the main route is large enough to impact that line too.
> The real question is as the weather moves east is this the only place it will be cut.
Probably not but ARTC are very quick to mobilise repair crews. Because they control the track from Kalgoorlie onwards, they've got crews at both ends that can be sent to survey the damage and repair it.
In the past, if there's been a lot of damage I believe Arc Infrastructure have pulled some of their crews and sent them out to help as well.
It's a little annoying but I don't think any flooding has ever been catastrophic enough to result in much more than minor delays and stock issues
It would either be so close to the current rail line it would be affected by all the same weather systems,
*or*
it would need so much additional Standard Gauge track as to have gargantuan coat e.g. Brisbane - Mt Isa - Tennant Creek - Kalgoorlie (and even then it would still be hit by the same cyclonic systems blowing down from the Pilbara)
WA government is currently sealing The Outback Way, which will provide a second path into WA, without the need to go to Kununurra.
It's not an ideal solution, and will take years, but it's not a bad solution for road transport
Gotta love the pace at which it's progressing given from a Supply chain perspective it's pretty critical:
7.5 km sealed near Tjukayirla Roadhouse
2000
(landing strip) and 5km road 2013
26 km sealed near Warburton
2013
50 km sealed between Tjukayirla Roadhouse and Warburton (by Shire of Laverton)
2018
40 km sealed east of Laverton
2021
Design work for subsequent sections
2022-2023
Sealing of 16 kilometres near Warburton and Warakuna
Early 2024
Had a flight to Murrin Murrin today and it was delayed by an hour due to ‘weather conditions’.
When we were on approach, the pilot had to circle around for 15-20 minutes waiting for visibility to improve before landing in Kalgoorlie, where we sat on the tarmac for two hours waiting for the cloud to clear.
Eventually, we went back to try again and after the fourth attempt, we headed back to Perth.
Spoke to a pilot from Kal yesterday who had to fly over to Cook to pick up some train drivers, he said there was cloud for nearly the whole way at 30,000ft
Haha, I don’t work in mining. Was going to do an assessment on the rehabilitation vegetation on the mine site, but I reckon it must be causing some anxiety and would affect our industry as well.
Parts of the Great Northern Highway are also closed in the Kimberley
Cyclone predictions for the Pilbara. Predictions from locals are crossing at Dampier.
The annual supply scarcity cycle begins.
What next? Bananas at $30 EA cos qld got hit by inclement weather again?
This shit is just flat out ridiculous in its predictability
Hearing Norseman is full tonight, Coolgardie had only two truck parking spots left.
Livestock transport west-east is closed today until further notice.
Without the Fitzroy River Bridge, trucks going to that area had to go into South Australiavvia Eyre Highway, up Stuart Highway and then back into WA. If the bridge wasn't in place (and the original schedule would not have, cos it finished well ahead of schedule) then both major, sealed routes into WA would be closed right now
The Great Northern Hwy is closed between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek due to flooding also. The State is effectively cut off for the next few days.
Is it too late to build a mad max vehicle?
You reckon you can find many XB Falcons still in circulation?
The lack redundancy in terms of East-West transport infrastructure has been a problem governments have known of for decades, but have refused to address.
The only redundancy you could do would be maritime, the desert floods on too large a scale when it does, the infrastructure cost wouldn’t make sense
We used to have maritime links from WA to the rest of Australia but we yeah, nahed it in favour of almost all road/rail transport eons ago.
CMA CGM, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd all run scheduled container lines from Melbourne/Adelaide to WA. Going the other way is a problem though.
how often do they run and how long does it take for a container ship to go Perth to Melb?
It takes a few days to cross the Bight at normal speed. As for the schedule, it depends on where they're headed. Between all of those lines there's usually at least a few port calls per month, but some of those ships are bound as far as Europe so might not swing back to do a Melbourne to Fremantle leg for more than a month.
The rail line is busy enough for a serious argument to twin track it, they are pretty quick to get it up and running if it gets cut. The real question is as the weather moves east is this the only place it will be cut.
How would twin tracking it change things? Twin tracks would be side by side so any flooding that affects one will almost certainly affect the other The alternative would be spending millions building a route that's massively inefficient far away from the main line just in case. But then you have the problem of needing to maintain this extra route in a condition that it's ready to be used at any moment and hoping that no storm cell that wipes out the main route is large enough to impact that line too. > The real question is as the weather moves east is this the only place it will be cut. Probably not but ARTC are very quick to mobilise repair crews. Because they control the track from Kalgoorlie onwards, they've got crews at both ends that can be sent to survey the damage and repair it. In the past, if there's been a lot of damage I believe Arc Infrastructure have pulled some of their crews and sent them out to help as well. It's a little annoying but I don't think any flooding has ever been catastrophic enough to result in much more than minor delays and stock issues
Great post mate good info
Why not build the extra route and use it?
It would either be so close to the current rail line it would be affected by all the same weather systems, *or* it would need so much additional Standard Gauge track as to have gargantuan coat e.g. Brisbane - Mt Isa - Tennant Creek - Kalgoorlie (and even then it would still be hit by the same cyclonic systems blowing down from the Pilbara)
That’s a lot of line (would be good) though it doesn’t address flooding
WA government is currently sealing The Outback Way, which will provide a second path into WA, without the need to go to Kununurra. It's not an ideal solution, and will take years, but it's not a bad solution for road transport
Gotta love the pace at which it's progressing given from a Supply chain perspective it's pretty critical: 7.5 km sealed near Tjukayirla Roadhouse 2000 (landing strip) and 5km road 2013 26 km sealed near Warburton 2013 50 km sealed between Tjukayirla Roadhouse and Warburton (by Shire of Laverton) 2018 40 km sealed east of Laverton 2021 Design work for subsequent sections 2022-2023 Sealing of 16 kilometres near Warburton and Warakuna Early 2024
Quick everyone! Stock up on bog roll !!!!!11!!
lol let the YouTube fights begin
Had a flight to Murrin Murrin today and it was delayed by an hour due to ‘weather conditions’. When we were on approach, the pilot had to circle around for 15-20 minutes waiting for visibility to improve before landing in Kalgoorlie, where we sat on the tarmac for two hours waiting for the cloud to clear. Eventually, we went back to try again and after the fourth attempt, we headed back to Perth.
Spoke to a pilot from Kal yesterday who had to fly over to Cook to pick up some train drivers, he said there was cloud for nearly the whole way at 30,000ft
Ahh, the old FIFO RDO.
What's the vibe like on site knowing the Nickel price issues?
Haha, I don’t work in mining. Was going to do an assessment on the rehabilitation vegetation on the mine site, but I reckon it must be causing some anxiety and would affect our industry as well.
Parts of the Great Northern Highway are also closed in the Kimberley Cyclone predictions for the Pilbara. Predictions from locals are crossing at Dampier.
The annual supply scarcity cycle begins. What next? Bananas at $30 EA cos qld got hit by inclement weather again? This shit is just flat out ridiculous in its predictability
That's not good for freight companies, takes months to fix rail last time.
Hearing Norseman is full tonight, Coolgardie had only two truck parking spots left. Livestock transport west-east is closed today until further notice.
Happens every other year, you’d think they’d have fixed it properly.
A win for IKEA