Roads, bridges being checked

ROAD engineers and assessors will visit the last group of flood-affected roads and bridges this week before giving them the final approvals to reopen.
Other critical infrastructure like drinking water and the sewerage network pulled through with minimal to no damage, according to council.
More than 200 homes and fewer than 50 businesses were impacted over the last fortnight, per council data.
On Thursday last week, 19 roads across the suburbs of Stockleigh, Mundoolun, Eagleby, Buccan, North Maclean, Logan Village, Lyons, Greenbank, and Loganholme remained closed.
Infrastructure committee chair Cr Teresa Lane said road inspections in those areas are the next step to get the city back to normal.
“A lot of roads faced significant impact, and we need to look at what happens in terms of repairing them, what the priority orders are, and safety of local residents,” she said.
“Then we try to find a way to fund it because no local infrastructure is ever covered by insurance, but we need to rebuild those and make them stronger for future floods.”
The Logan Chamber of Commerce highlighted how Logan had become more like an archipelago during flooding, creating a huge problem for both residents and businesses.
“We were cut off in many places, so we effectively became a series of islands, so getting deliveries to us didn’t start happening until Wednesday, Thursday, Friday last week [of the week ending March 6],” chamber of commerce president Chyerl Pridham said.
“It was actually a little bit scary towards the end of the week because petrol stations only had one or the other type of fuel for your car because petrol tankers couldn’t get through.”
State-owned bridges in Logan are structurally stable after the deluge and flooding.
The Queensland government said upgrades after the 2017 ex-cyclone Debbie prevented extensive damage.
Cr Lane said they had water crews stationed around all parts of Logan during the flooding to test water quality. She said they reported minimal damage to equipment and facilities.
“We didn’t have any breaches in the quality standards, which is fantastic,” she said.
“There were a couple of sewerage leaks, but that’s to be expected and the damage is minimal.”