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Highlights
- The railway line connecting Northern Territory, Adelaide, and Western Australia was closed for more than three weeks.
- Now, the railway line finally reopened today.
- The Stuart Highway is open for emergency vehicles, heavy vehicles, light vehicles and 4WDs.
Record rainfall in South Australia resulted in massive flooding. This severely affected the railway that connected the Northern Territory, Adelaide, and Western Australia. Some areas reported more than 200 millimetres of rainfall in a day. Meteorologists describe this situation as a ‘one-in-200 year’ event.
The railway line was closed for more than three weeks, impacting the retail goods, beverages, and fresh food supplies.
Now, the railway line finally reopened today, nine freight trains destined for Perth, Alice Springs, and Darwin left during the early hours today.
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The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) shared a few details on the railway line repairs. The 300km long track and 18 locations were damaged. More than 100 staff worked around the clock in hot and humid conditions in the middle of Southern Australia.
Over 50,000 tonnes of rock and ballast were used for repairing. In some sites, for transporting heavy machinery, access roads were rebuilt. Bardavcol, Exact Mining and McMahons are the companies that reallocated their resources for supporting the rail recovery project.
Finally, a sigh of relief for the Northern territory residents who felt the severity of the floods.
Since the railway line has been closed for a long time, mails of almost three weeks are stockpiled by the Australian post. Alice Spring KFC remained closed on Australian Day as it ran out of chicken.
The Stuart Highway is the main road that maintains Darwin and Adelaide connectivity. The highway is open for emergency vehicles, heavy vehicles, light vehicles and 4WDs.
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