Assessing mining impacts on road travel conditions in an intensive coal mining region in Australia: a case study of the northern Bowen Basin

Road transport networks are essential for the sustainability of mining activities as well as the liveability of mining communities. This paper examined the impacts of mining activity on road travel conditions in the Bowen Basin region. A pressure-state-impact-response (PSIR) framework was used to identify the impacts of mining activity. Pressure (i.e., development), state (i.e., change) and impacts (i.e., effects) were identified by reviewing environmental impact assessments of selected coal mines' travel trips and commodities flow modelling. Following this a household travel survey was distributed to residents of the Moranbah and Emerald townships in order to explore mining communities' level of satisfaction with their road travel experiences. The study found that the poor pavement condition, safety and congestion was associated with over-dimensional vehicles. Other issues raised included perceptions of poor driver behaviour, particularly in regard to speed, inattention and fatigue. The research identified road user's support for confining the movement of wide loads to low-traffic periods (such as overnight), and introducing carpooling arrangements to reduce congestion and addressing the issues of accidents and driver fatigue. These findings have planning implications to future transport planning in the Bowen Basin region as well as other inland and intensive mining regions