Massive investment to be made in Queensland roads

Published: March 27, 2019

The Federal Government has announced an investment of $730 million to upgrade or seal about 700 kilometres of road in North Queensland, and it could make an awful lot of difference to grey nomads.

Next week’s budget will allocate $200 million to be spent on upgrading the Barkly and Flinders highways between Townsville and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory; $100 million on upgrading the Gregory, Dawson and Carnarvon highways between Townsville and Roma; and $190 million on the Mount Isa to Yeppoon corridor.

“These road upgrades will help North Queensland recover from some of the worst floods in its history by better connecting western parts of Queensland to the coast,” the coalition government said in a statement.

The Townsville Bulletin reports that a portion of the funding, through the Roads of Strategic Importance initiative, will also be used to upgrade the iconic Savannah Way between Cairns and the Northern Territory border ($50 million) and the road from Cooktown to Weipa ($190 million).

The Federal Government says the upgraded routes will offer an inland alternative to the Bruce Highway, making travel safer travel and potentially bringing millions of dollars in tourist spending to remote and regional communities.

Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan said roads were the ‘arteries of lifeblood’ for communities and better routes would get them pumping with business again.

“We will build on our efforts to ensure that work on these roads goes to local communities, as we have done through the Beef Roads and Northern Australia Roads program,” he said. “This will provide more jobs and more economic activity in regional towns.”

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Yeah, right. As if.

Bah
It.ll all be around Brisbane. Heard all this hot air talk before.

I would remind everyone that the current federal government has a demonstrated record of spending much more on roads than prior governments so I have no reason to disbelieve the announcement.

I certainly hope it happens. Travelling some of the existing roads in western and middle Queensland towing an 8×5 foot tandem trailer was bad enough.
Many roads have rough uneven surfaces with with broken edges, no sholders and narrow lanes.
We are not looking forward to travelling these roads with our caravan when we do the circuit around Australia.
The double middle line with the wider space between that is on a number of Queensland roads and a few in NSW is a good idea.
It allows a bit more space between larger vehicles travelling in opposite directions.
Also better pulloff areas off the road rather than right beside it and appropriate signage giving fair indication and distance to these areas would be appreciated.
Many pulloff areas in Queensland have no signage so it is unsafe to slow up enough to use them when they suddenly appear while being tailgated by large transports or other traffic which is what we have experienced often since being on the road with our caravan.

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