Mount Crosby overpass reopens after truck crashes into bridge on Warrego Highway

Australia Broadcast Center

21-05-2025

The damage bill from a truck crash on a major Queensland highway is expected to run into the tens of millions of dollars, and some warn it could happen again unless upgrades are fast-tracked.
A truck carrying parts of a wind turbine struck the Mount Crosby Bridge on the Warrego Highway near Ipswich about 1:40am on Friday, after reportedly failing to follow escort vehicles onto an off-ramp.
The crash forced the closure of the highway's westbound lanes for two-and-a-half days, disrupting freight and local traffic.
One lane on the overpass reopened Tuesday, but the bridge won't be able to carry heavy vehicles until permanent repairs are completed.
A Queensland police spokesperson said investigations into the crash were continuing.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said the community was relieved to see the highway reopen.
"There was a lot of anxiety in our community that this was going to take some time to repair," she said.
"Our experience with bridge strikes is they can take over a year [to repair]."
Ms Harding said she understood the bill would be "at least tens of millions of dollars".
"I understand that [the Department of Transport and Main Roads] will be billing the responsible or the liable organisation for that," she said.
The Warrego Highway is a major freight highway that links south-east Queensland to Toowoomba, the Darling Downs and Maranoa region.
It connects to other highways, connecting to Mount Isa and the Northern Territory and is a major inland freight route.
According to TMR, about 30,000 vehicles use the westbound section of the highway every day.
Freight industry advocates said the crash was part of a larger problem — a fragile network that can't handle the increasing number of oversized vehicle movements linked to Queensland's energy and construction boom.
The truck was carrying parts of a wind turbine bound for a wind farm construction site in south-west Queensland.
Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TSBE), which works closely with energy and freight companies as the economic development body for the Darling Downs region, has been campaigning for upgrades to the Warrego Highway for several years.
Strategic Partnerships manager Lance MacManus said there were many "inefficiencies" on that part of the highway.
"There's been over 2,500 of those heavy traffic movements like that wind tower that we've seen [on the Warrego] since 2019 and we have more to come for wind farms," he said.
"We'll probably see that again in the next 18 months. Unfortunately, this was just a really, really public accident."
Deficiencies discovered in the nearby Bremer River Bridge forced speed limits to be reduced for all motorists and weight limits introduced for trucks.
Oversized heavy vehicles must travel late at night and switch to the eastbound lane when travelling west — closing the highway to all other traffic — and exit and re-enter the highway at the Mount Crosby Bridge due to height restrictions.
TMR is currently working on an $85 million project to strengthen the river bridge.
Mr MacManus said the detour created added cost for businesses, who he said worked safely and reliably.
"The optimal opportunity would be to be able to travel from the Port [of Brisbane] out to site along the Warrego travelling at 80kph with pilot vehicles," he said.
"Unfortunately, this [incident] came about because we're trying to create a work around."
His colleague, TSBE strategic communications manager Katie Craymer, said it was unknown at this stage when movements would be allowed to return to normal, as current works were just a band-aid fix.
"What they're doing at the moment is remedial, they're just trying to keep it up … but it's not going to actually fix it, so even when they finish those remedial works, it's not going to be up to a point where it's going to be better," she said.
"It's on life support essentially.
"We need visibility to the long-term solution."
Ms Craymer said there were many sections of the Warrego Highway, such as the Glenore Grove crossroads in the Lockyer Valley, which get cut off due to flooding, and there was another bridge near Miles that needed urgent upgrades.
"The Warrego Highway is actually the second most trafficked highway in Queensland behind the Bruce, so it's not insignificant," she said.
She said she wanted to see similar investment as was promised for the Bruce Highway.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said the "lack of detail" around works at the Bremer River Bridge, and planned upgrades to the Mount Crosby Bridge and intersection, needed to be sorted quickly.
"So far we don't know when the work's going to start and we don't know when it's going to finish, so there's again a bit of anxiety around our community," she said.
Transport Minister Brett Mickelberg said there had been a "considerable effort" by all involved to reopen the highway after the wind turbine crash.
"Our focus now shifts to making sure the overpass is restored as quickly as possible," he said.
"There is considerable damage to the bridge which has been rectified so that it is safe but it won't be able to carry heavy loads until it is repaired properly."
The Department of Transport and Main Roads was contacted for comment.