THE AUSTRALIAN Government has committed $140 million for the construction of new and upgraded heavy vehicle rest areas and Bena has been pegged as an ideal location by the Gippsland Safe Freight Network (GSFN).
At a recent meeting, the GSFN discussed the suitability of the Jeetho Road and South Gippsland Highway intersection for a heavy vehicle rest area.
GFSN member Mick Debenham, who is a local consultant specialising in heavy vehicle compliance and former livestock carrier for 12 years explains the reasoning behind the location.
“There's a section of land in between Jeetho Road and the South Gippsland Highway that's not privately owned. I presume it is more than large enough to build a heavy vehicle rest area and the Jeetho Road intersection is actually quite large with turning lanes. From what I've learned, one of the most expensive parts of a heavy vehicle rest area is actually the interface with the highway, so that is getting off and then getting back on the road,” said Mick.
“(This site) would significantly reduce the cost involved in doing it. But it's also, I think, strategically located and probably a large percentage of heavy vehicles that use this highway would all be able to make use of that rest area.”
The South Gippsland Highway has seen increasing heavy vehicle use with the freight of dairy, livestock, horticulture, quarrying and forestry industries as the primary users and this will soon increase to include heavy vehicle use for on and offshore windfarms.
These industries together in Gippsland alone are worth more than $18 billion annually.
Yet there are currently no dedicated northbound heavy vehicle rest areas along the busy route from Yarram to Cranbourne, a section that is 171 kilometres long and over two hours of travel time.
“It's pretty common for trucks to go in and out of Melbourne once or twice a day, but the other thing about a rest area is it's not just somewhere to sleep. It's actually somewhere for drivers to check their loads. It's somewhere that they can actually access toilets,” explained Mick.
“So essentially, it doesn't matter where you're going down the South Gippsland highway. You know that that rest area will be able to be used.”
For eight of the twelve years Mick spent as a livestock carrier, he was also involved in the livestock transport associations and explains that the Bena location would offer the additional advantage of being suitable for the dumping of livestock effluent.
“Currently, there are no roadside effluent dumps (for livestock) in Australia, despite the Australia Livestock and Rural Transporters Association getting funding to install one. They've had, to date, no luck with any councils wanting to say, okay, here's some land, let's build one and see what happens.”
“Obviously there's a cost involved in that, but that was the intention of the trial, for a roadside effluent that was to be able to set it up with a user pays thing on it, to evaluate how much people would be prepared to pay, and how much it would actually cost on an operating line to do it,” explained Mick.
GSFN have also heard that the Heavy Vehicle Rest Area (HVRA) group who are responsible for the funding were disappointed they hadn't had as many applications from councils as they were envisaging and will be advocating to the South Gippsland Shire Council to apply for the initiative. one are worth more than $18 billion annually.
Yet there are currently no dedicated north bound heavy vehicle rest areas along the busy route from Yarram to Cranbourne, a section that 171 kilometres long and over two hours of travel time.
“It's pretty common for trucks to go in and out of Melbourne once or twice a day, but the other thing about a rest area is it's not just somewhere to sleep. It's actually somewhere for drivers to check their loads. It's somewhere that they can actually access toilets,” explains Mick.
“So essentially, it doesn't matter where you're going down the South Gippsland highway. You know that that rest area will be able to be used.”
For eight of the twelve years Mick spent as a livestock carrier, he was also involved in the livestock transport associations and explains that the Bena location would offer the additional advantage of being suitable for the dumping of livestock effluent.
“Currently, there's no roadside effluent dumps (for livestock) in Australia, despite the Australia Livestock and Rural Transporters Association getting funding to install one. They've had, to date, no luck with any councils wanting to say, okay, here's some land, let's build one and see what happens.”
“Obviously there's a cost involved in that, but that was the intention of the trial, for a roadside effluent that was to be able to set it up with a user pays thing on it, to evaluate how much people would be prepared to pay, and how much it would actually cost on an operating line to do it,” explains Mick.
GSFN have also heard that the Heavy Vehicle Rest Area (HVRA) group who are responsible for the funding were disappointed they hadn't had as many applications from councils as what they were envisaging and will be advocating to the South Gippsland Shire Council to apply for the initiative.