A workforce drain on civil construction projects in Tasmania could leave local councils no option but to lower speed limits on roads overdue for improvements.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A Legislative Council inquiry into road safety heard on Monday concerns that some road project tenders in Tasmania are receiving no bids due to an excess of works available, and no interest from mainland firms.
RACT chief advocacy officer Garry Bailey said speed limit reductions were often the only tools left, but the process was "really inconsistent" - something that was highlighted 11 years ago in the last road safety inquiry.
"Setting speed limits is, in many ways, the only instrument you've got in that you can make some of our roads safer, because you simply cannot bring all our roads up to standard in the timelines we've got," he said.
"There's an additional problem now, across Australia, and this was mentioned by Infrastructure Australia only at the weekend, is we simply don't have the skills and the capacity to deliver our projects on time."
Tasmania still has the worst per-capita road trauma rates in Australia, the inquiry was told, which was also a significant contributor to workplace compensation claims among emergency services workers.
Ten Tasmania Police officers have received compensation payouts in the past three years, 31 are pending and 42 are incapacitated from work.
The poor standard of the state's roads - particularly council-managed - was unlikely to drastically change any time soon due to workforce challenges, the inquiry was told.
Local Government Association of Tasmania chief executive officer Dion Lester said an increase in government construction works - from both state and Commonwealth funding sources - meant it was difficult for new projects to attract interest.
"It is really hard to spend money on construction projects at the moment in this state," he said.
READ MORE: Are governments buying Tasmanian votes?
"The capacity is not there in the design realm, so starting right back at the design phase, the engineering consultancies and those specialist firms are generally very very busy and struggling to get professional staff.
"And then if you've got the design result, actually trying to get construction tenders - and sometimes the scale of these projects are such that they're quite small - and most firms in Tasmania have got plenty of work on."
Tasmania could usually draw upon mainland firms to fill the gap, but these have been absorbed by increasing infrastructure spends across the country.
Mr Lester said it meant a new approach to road improvements would be needed.
"We need to look at the entire length of road, and we need to look at a strategic investment in that system of that road," he said.
This was different to the current model in which individual councils apply separately for black spot funding, effectively competing with one another rather than seeing roads as a broader network.
What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor:
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.examiner.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter: @examineronline
- Follow us on Instagram: @examineronline
- Follow us on Google News: The Examiner