People travelling on the major highway connecting Tasmania's north and south are facing delays of as much as an hour, with sealing works underway at three different points — with local businesses warning the resulting cost to industry will have to be passed on.
The Department of State Growth has installed traffic lights on patches of the Midland Highway at Oatlands, Ross and Campbell Town, claiming that requiring motorists to come to a complete stop is necessary to ensure passenger and worker safety.
The department said each section where traffic lights have been installed is delaying motorists by an average of six minutes, with delays of up to 15 minutes in some cases.
Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey said the delays are frustrating for people who travel the Midland Highway each day, but the pain is particularly being felt by the state's freight sector.
Mr Bailey said some of his members were paying thousands of dollars a week in overtime payments due to roadworks delays.
He said he wanted to see changes to government policy, like increasing the speeds through stretches of roadworks from 60 kilometres per hour to 80.
"The thing is that it costs more to have a higher limit through roadworks," he said.
"You need more barriers, you need more staff. So what's really happening is that the people of Tasmania are paying for that difference that the government isn't paying.
"We should have consistency first across the roadworks ... and secondly, there should be some rules set by government on what those speeds should be.
"Again, it might cost more, but at the end of the day, we will pay out of our own pocket one way or the other and that's what's happening right now, businesses are paying particularly for the roadworks through that extra cost in hours."
Delays frustrating truckies
Bonney Energy managing director Wayne Bould said a trip from Burnie to Hobart on Monday took four and a half hours, about 45 minutes longer than usual.
He said the delays associated with the delays were costing the company and making his truck drivers frustrated.
"The issue for us is where we'd schedule four or five trips a day for a vehicle to fill the service stations and our customers and the like, we're probably losing one trip per day per truck," he said.
"You add that to the stock shortages we saw last year ... and if we've got to pick up at Bell Bay, or you've got to come to Hobart, then you get all of that road delay added to that trip; you may only get one trip in during the day in those circumstances."
Department of State Growth general manager Denise McIntyre told ABC Radio Hobart the Midland Highway roadworks were at the "tail end" of a 10-year upgrade program, with an end between 18 months and two years away.
The majority of the works are occurring during business hours on weekdays.
Ms McIntyre said it was up to the contractors to decide when the work should be completed, rather than for the government to mandate works happening on the weekend.
"We do [mandate weekend and night works] in certain situations, but in this case, it hasn't been deemed necessary," she said.
"They've [the contractor] put in a tender for a certain fee and that's what's been accepted. If we change that, it will cost us more, and obviously, we will need to consider that within budget; we, like everyone else, manage a budget."
She said data indicated there was an average six-minute delay for each of the three stretches of roadworks where traffic lights had been installed.
"It's never good to hold people up and to hear that people are frustrated about the delays," she said.
"We talk to our contractors regularly about increasing the speeds where they can do so safely, but for the most part, these works are being undertaken to ensure safety for both workers and the travelling public."
Ms McIntyre said the department was also looking into roadside signage that advised drivers of expected delays.
In a statement, Minister for Transport Michael Ferguson said: "Night works on projects such as the Midland Highway upgrades, which extend over long distances in regional areas, would not be practical and would be prohibitively expensive.
"The lighting required to provide a safe work environment over many kilometres alone would be impractical.
"Weekend works would also substantially increase labour costs and reduce the achievable road safety outcomes for the capital expenditure."
