Ally Kovacich and her family spent four "anxious" days stuck in a north Queensland hotel room this week when intense rain cut off their one route home.
"It was exceptionally frustrating, especially because we had the two boys," she said.
Her family's return journey to the Burdekin further north was delayed when they hit one of 12 sections of the Bruce Highway cut due to the severe weather.
While the family was safe and found accommodation, Ms Kovacich said it was a stressful time.
"You start to get anxious … because it's turning into three days, three days is a long time," she said.
Ms Kovacich's experience was mirrored by hundreds of travellers this week, as the deluge cut off parts of the 1,600-kilometre route and other roads in central and North Queensland.
But the blockages were more than an inconvenience for some major industries, with flooded roads causing significant freight issues and leading to a shortage of crucial supplies in some supermarkets.
"It is a big worry for the community when you have not got access to a major town like Townsville or Mackay," Whitsunday Mayor Julie Hall said.
Flood-proofing a road network
National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO) representative Joe Grobler said it was unlikely the country's highways would ever be flood-proof.
But he said work was being done to make the Bruce Highway more weather resilient.
"I can see a future where that [flooding of the Bruce Highway] will become less and less, as the government provides more funding for upgrades," Mr Grobler said.
"But I do believe they [the Queensland government] will reach a stage where we have at least some of these critical links across the network in a more resilient condition."
The portfolio leader for the NTRO's smarter construction outcomes group said the sheer size of Queensland's road network made it more difficult and expensive to maintain and upgrade.
"If you have a look at the vast area that we need to cover … we've got about 220,000 kilometres of road link," he said.
"To put that in perspective, it's almost six times around the Earth's circumference.
"It's a large network and that network comes at a cost."
$13 billion highway upgrades
The total cost of maintenance and operation of Queensland's road network in 2021-22 was about $1.1 billion, up $21.5 million from 2020-21, a Transport and Main Roads (TMR) spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said nine natural disasters impacted the state's roads during 2021-22, with $500 million budgeted for repairs in the next two years.
TMR said it was too early to estimate the cost of road damage for this week's rain event, but flood resilience was part of the 15-year, $13 billion Bruce Highway Upgrade Program.
Transport Minister Mark Bailey said many upgrades had been completed including the Haughton River Floodplain Upgrade between Ayr and Townsville and another at Salt Water Creek in Maryborough.
"We are keen to make the Bruce more flood-immune but people do need to remember the Bruce Highway is 1,650 kilometres long," Mr Bailey said.
"If you've got extreme weather events, you will have impacts. That's inevitable, but we are upgrading it in a way no previous government has before."
Researching 'innovative' road materials
Mr Grobler said the NTRO had increased its focus on finding innovative materials and techniques to build roads over the past few decades due to the frequency of severe weather events.
"If you look at the vast majority of our roads network, it's made up of gravel materials, which is very moisture sensitive," he said.
"They hold up well when it's dry but when it's wet they tend to fall apart.
"Our focus has been on identifying methods and ways to improve the properties of those gravel materials … to reduce the moisture sensitivity of the material."
Mr Grobler said some of the technologies were already making a difference, but there was still a way to go.
"We have seen areas where that flood immunity has improved significantly," he said.
"For example, Queensland's got a very long history with the use of bitumen foam pavement materials.
"As they go through different flooding events, they tend to hold up much better than our conventional materials."
Mr Grobler said some examples of roads treated with foamed bitumen that have performed well after flooding include the Yeppen Floodplain on the Bruce Highway in Rockhampton, sections of the Mt Lindesay Highway near Camp Cable Road in Jimboomba, and at Oakey-Pittsworth Road at Mount Tyson.
Emergency messaging
As a North Queenslander who uses the Bruce Highway regularly, Ms Kovacich said she was not sure there would ever be a future where the entire highway was "flood-proof".
"We might make it flood-proof and then a more extreme weather event comes through," she said.
Ms Kovacich said she hoped to see clearer emergency messaging.
"I think what's fallen apart with this is because things changed [so quickly]," she said.
"There were so many variables in this situation that I just I felt that the communication was just … ridiculous."
Mr Bailey said the QLD Traffic website was updated as much as possible.
"I'm happy to look into it specifically as we want people to get that information as soon as they can," he said.
