Dardanup shire approves towing allowance

Towing allowance for a freight company hinged on a decision to be made by the Dardanup Shire Council at their meeting last night.

K&S Freighters has requested concessional level three vehicle combinations to travel along Moore Road and Barcoo Close, which is rapidly deteriorating because of heavy vehicle traffic.

The Accredited Mass Management Scheme is a concessional loading scheme introduced by Main Roads WA and provides a more flexible concessional loading scheme for operators.

The AMMS is applied to restricted access vehicles and effectively means the vehicles will have a higher axle loading under the scheme.

In a report to the council, shire assets manager Mick Saunders said he was backing the decision to reject the application due to the Barcoo Close, Moore Road and Busher Road showing signs of significant defects in the surface.

With Moore road due for renewal works in 2021-22, Dardanup shire president Mick Bennett said the council needed to be mindful of what they were doing.

“Our engineering department have suggested we do some repairs as it’s only the one component that is using that road at this point in time,” Cr Bennett said.

“The decision needs to be closely looked at by the Dardanup council as it may well be influenced by changes to the Bunbury Outer Ring Road.

“What we really want to avoid is repairing the road and then having Main Roads come along and say that was a waste of time.”

Cr Bennett said a final decision would not be made until there was further confirmation from Main Roads on the decision around the Bunbury Outer Ring Road.

“It’s mainly the bigger trucks that will cause a little bit more damage but it’s pretty damaged there anyway,” Cr Bennett said.

“There could be some minor repairs at the intersection of their business so the road is not constantly getting torn up, but the council will just need to look at it more closely and wait until we find out exactly what is going to happen with Main Roads.”

Cr Bennett said there were a few questions that needed to be asked and he planned to bring these questions to the council.