Date given to reopen Peak Downs Highway 'not good enough'

According to the Department of Transport and Main Roads, construction of the sidetrack is underway and is expected to be operational by mid-May.

In the meantime, the Peak Downs highway remains temporarily closed and detour routes via the Dysart-Clermont Road and the Peak Downs Mine Road are available with restrictions in place.

For users such as Belyando Produce owner Nick Manly, based at Clermont, that is nowhere near good enough.

"They say the bypass has to be to a certain standard - tell me, is driving to Dysart around hills with the sun in your eyes safe," he asked.

"Is putting traffic on these other roads not made for that amount of traffic safe.

"This is impacting the whole region on an hourly and daily basis, everything from transport costs, to people forgoing medical appointments because of the extra two hours of driving involved.

"This has been holding businesses to ransom for 10 days already - why are we being made to wait another 15 days."

Mr Manly said the Transport Minister Bart Mellish should be directing BMA, whose truck, carrying an excavator, caused the damage, to be responsible for their actions.

"The minister has got the power - he should be saying to them, if you don't sort it out now, we'll look at your mining permits or have a fine for every day the road is closed," he said. "If someone else had done this to them, they'd be in the gallows in 24 hours."

Mr Manly added that hours after the accident happened, one of his trucks arrived at the site at 2am and by 3am, had been escorted through the area by BMA, and he questioned why that couldn't still happen.

Burdekin MP Dale Last described the incident as a disaster unfolding at Moranbah.

"It has been an absolute catastrophe for some of those businesses and for some of the property owners who live along that road," he said. "Some of these business operators are going out of business."

Speaking in parliament this week, Mr Last added his voice of dissatisfaction, saying that taking between two weeks and a month to construct a detour wasn't good enough.

"It needs to happen now," he said.

"They should be operating there 24 hours a day until that detour is in place to allow the residents, the business operators and the truckies to access that highway.

"This is a major arterial; this is a major highway servicing the Isaac region.

"I am calling on TMR and BMA to work together to get that detour constructed as an absolute priority and to put in place the necessary traffic controls to allow traffic to safely negotiate that detour."

Transport Minister Bart Mellish said the government knew how important the corridor was for locals, mining and freight movements alike.

He said restoring access at the overpass was a priority, which was why the government was working closely with the mine operator to complete urgent repairs and return the overpass to a safe condition.

He repeated the TMR advice that the sidetrack was expected to be open in mid-May.

Mr Last said a quarry operator told his office that due to the road closure his business had lost $750,000 and it was looking like he would have to retrench 30 staff.

"We have a trucking business in Clermont that has had to jack its prices up by $25 a tonne because his drivers now have an extra two hours to drive on a return trip to Mackay," he said.

"It does not stop there because that means the drivers are exceeding their logbook hours so they are now forced to stay overnight, which adds further costs and delays to the transport of goods and services and produce into those communities."

He also said a property owner had lost up to 20 head of cattle to date because the Dysart to Clermont road that traffic is detouring on is unfenced in sections.

"That is what is happening as a consequence of delays in building this detour," he said, adding that road building material and machinery were at their fingertips, being in the heart of Queensland's mining region.

In a social media post, TMR said its priority was to safely restore access to the Peak Downs Highway as soon as possible.

"Heavy vehicle operators, including oversize overmass, B-double and type 1 road trains, are encouraged to refer to the Conditions of Operations database prior to their journey (on the alternative routes).

"If the recommended routes are not applicable, heavy vehicle operators can plan their journey through the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator route planner tool prior to applying for a NHVR permit for further assessment."