RTA 'would not reinforce collapsed road'

A Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) engineer involved in the construction of a section of the Old Pacific Highway which collapsed last year, killing a family of five, has told a Sydney inquest his requests to reinforce the road were denied.

Adam Holt, 30, his partner Roslyn Bragg, 29, their daughters Madison, two, and Jasmine, three, and Ms Bragg's nephew Travis, nine, died after their car plunged into a collapsed culvert at Piles Creek at Somersby on the NSW Central Coast, during heavy rains on June 8 last year.

Peter Bamford was the resident engineer overseeing the construction of that section of the road from 1981-82.

He told the Glebe Coroners Court on Tuesday, it had been the first time he had used sealed pipe culverts in road construction during his career.

Mr Bamford said he had been made aware at the time of a propensity for the culverts to corrode over time and that the method of preventing this was to line them with concrete, but a request to do this had been denied.

"We asked if (head office) wanted it lined, and they said no," Mr Bamford told the inquest.

Paul Menzies, counsel assisting the coroner, asked him: "Do you know why it was that the F3 was given the tick (reinforced) but not Piles Creek?"

"No, I don't," he replied.

Neil Lamb, another RTA engineer who worked on the construction of the Old Pacific Highway, said it was common practice at the RTA at the time for only the most susceptible roads to be reinforced.

"It would have come down to degrees (of urgency)," he told the inquest.

The inquest continues.

nine news 3 Jun 2008

Another typical example of governments negligence, resulting in the death of innocent people.
A government inquest into the actions of another government department. Maybe the innocent victims could be at fault ???