Hyphen Abuse

While reading today’s Geelong Advertiser (online), I came across an odd sentence:

“Four cranes were called in to clear the right-hand lane of the steel barriers and to stand them back-up right.”

Two hyphens in the one sentence, in a provincial paper? My theory of writing (and I don’t think it is original) is that the purpose of a sentence is to convey meaning and information, and to communicate. So what on earth is that second hyphen communicating?

The word ‘up’ clearly belongs to the word ‘right’. The crane stood the barrier up right (or even upright, which is a perfectly good word). So why has the word ‘up’ been connected to the word ‘back’ with a hyphen?

What meaning was the writer trying to convey? Or does someone just not have a clue what a hyphen is for?

And furthermore…

I am not crazy about that “right-hand” either. There is no real reason for the word ‘hand’ to be appended. Using “right lane” is quite sufficient.