The most popular walking track on Magnetic Island to the historic WW2 fortifications followed an eroded and loose gravel road how could it be upgraded and still allow essential management vehicle access?
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) had long had an ongoing maintenance problem with the popular Forts Track on Magnetic Island. Due to essential communication infrastructure the track had to allow occasional management vehicle access yet also provide a quality walking track to view koalas and access the historic gun emplacements. Heavy wet season downpours would remove the gravel surface and create erosion channels, while not a steep track the surface was slippery with loose fine gravel. QPWS wanted a long lasting solution instead of constant re gravelling.
TTMS approach was to reshape the road surface and install regular grade dips and stone water bars with accompanying open diversion drains. All these structures were open to enable cleaning of sediment in preference to culvert pipes which inevitable block up. This reduced the slipperiness of the track and erodibility while still enabling four wheel drive vehicles to use the track.
