Corrugated roads in the Outback can be a major problem for travellers. They can do damage to the suspension and wheels of cars that travel over them, resulting in flat tyres, breakdowns and costly repairs.

There have been many theories about the causes of road corrugations. In many instances, road corrugations are inevitable, leading to the necessity for re-paving the roads every so often. This is often not seen as a wise investment for the area of the Outback, however, which gets so little traffic.

It is thought that the tyres are in part responsible for road corrugations. First they tend to take the road’s first layer off, which renders it more vulnerable to corrugation. Then, because it is now a bit smoother, it is easier for cars to skid on the surface. When this happens, the cars can’t help but cause damage to the road.

Additionally, even if the surface of one part of the road is smooth, there may be another that is not, so it is likely that a car travelling on the road will hit some kind of bump. If this occurs, the car is likely to cause road damage when it becomes airborne (even if that happens ever so slightly) and hits the ground once again. If this happens over and over again, eventually the road will end up cracked and damaged where the tyres normally would be.

There have also been studies done relating to the load carried by the automobiles on the road. It was indicated by studies done in the middle of the twentieth century that doubling the wheel load increases the likelihood of corrugation by sixteen times.

Experiments have been done on sand to show the rate of corrugation based on the speed of the vehicle. It is also likely that when wheels hit the pavement, the resulting expansion and contraction of the road material. It is possible that low-quality asphalt or gravel contributes to this tendency of the road to change shape after contact with an automobile.

In the Outback, the wind may also have something to do with the corrugation of roads. Since the wind naturally moves gravel particles around, it is inevitable that there will be at least a few small peaks and valleys on each road. Even roads that experience little or no traffic will experience corrugation because of the wind. Unfortunately, little can be done about this kind of corrugation and drivers will simply have to prepare to run into the problems caused by this phenomenon.