The flooding at Forbes is affecting the heavy vehicle industry by adding to travel time

Road safety advocate and driver Rod Hannifey is one of many people in the profession who use the Newell Highway which runs through Forbes, commonly on his way to and from Brisbane.

Mr Hannifey told the Daily Liberal it was upsetting to see the current state of the roads, making things especially difficult for truck drivers to do their job.

"I'm a little bit concerned in when we had the two big floods ago, they said 'we are going to go out and do something about flood-proofing the Newell (Highway)'," he said.

"We all said 'yep, that's really good', then they had another flood but this one is different to the last one which made them go back to start everything afresh.

"There about eight culverts and if they had started after the first flood, and simply done those culverts up to the road level.

"Because the majority of the time, it's the culverts that fail and it's them where the water all washes through because there isn't the capacity for the water or it isn't capable of getting through there.

"The roads also aren't strong enough to withstand it because we know it's going to come, if they'd started and done once a year, we'd have four done."

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Forbes' flooding peaked on Monday morning and the clean-up efforts have begun for the people are who are able to reach their homes.

Mr Hannifey believes had the roads been fixed after the last floods, then some areas of the Newell Highway wouldn't be as bad as they currently are and trucks might have an easy journey.

"We'd have a couple of spots that might have been a problem, whereas now you are back to the put where the whole road is closed," he said.

"We haven't done one single thing to stop it from happening tomorrow, next week or next year.

"It's terrible, the people of Forbes have struggled but every single truck that runs from Brisbane to Melbourne now has to go three hours out of its way."

Travelling from Melbourne to Brisbane isn't cheap in the first place and Mr Hannifey said the extra three hours makes things more expensive for all parties involved in the heavy vehicle industry.

"That's the cost of fuel, the consumer buying those products plus there is wear and tear," he said

"We recognise they are struggling to get people but goodness me, recognising there was a problem and not doing a single thing to actually work on it in four or six years is a little bit disheartening.

"Because what have we got to look forward to now, this was another flood and we are going to re-do it all.

"By the time they start work in 12 or 18 months, because we know money doesn't fall out of the sky, we could've had another flood and the whole thing could happen again."

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