Thick and loose gravel that caused a Gold Coast rider to fall off her Harley-Davidson on the Lions Rd on the NSW-Queensland border is being fixed.
Kyogle Council Director Assets and Infrastructure Services Tony Lickis told us today that “crews are currently in attendance” and the gravel swept away.
The incident occurred on Saturday on the northern-most bridge on the NSW side of the famed motorcyclist road.
The rider, Robyn Love, was riding her Sportster with the Gold Coast Cruiser Club.
Robyn told us she was sore, but okay.
Her fellow riders tell us the road was covered in thick gravel right across the exits of the bridge.
“We have, as you know, recently completed the approach works to this bridge,” Tony says.
“At the time of sealing, the stone is bonded to the road way with minimal loose material evident, however as the road settles down and beds in we have a percentage of what we call ‘whip off’.
“This loose stone by the actions of the traffic naturally migrates to the outside edge of the road off the normally trafficked section and concentrates (in racing it is the area of road known as ‘off the line’).
“In this particular case we have had significantly more loose stone as evidenced by your Facebook video.
“We were unaware until your notification, we will have a crew up there as a matter of urgency to address this situation.”
Tony says a warning sign was and still is in place 200-300m before the gravel.
This is the bridge with gravel back when it was opened in mid-MarchThe famous Lions Rd reopened in mid-March after 18 months of bridgeworks.
When I attended the launch, there was gravel on this bridge then, but we were advised it would be fixed later that day.
It seems the gravel was still there at the weekend.
Tony says the Lions Rd will have ongoing roadworks and they will “never reseal the whole road to make it race-track smooth”.
It is believed the Lions TT event will not be held this year and may be permanently cancelled.