The Northern Territory Government budget has delivered a funding boost to the rural road network. The sealing of the 157km Namatjira Drive, which began in 2006, will finally be completed in early 2014.
An extra $5m is to be allocated to seal the final 7km stretch of the scenic drive which connects with Larapinta Drive west of Alice Springs, heading along the MacDonnell Ranges to Glen Helen and beyond from where it heads southwards to Gosses Bluff. An estimated 41 to 183 vehicles travel the road per day.
The ongoing sealing of the Tanami, which runs from the Stuart Highway to the WA border, will also get an allocation of $2m. To date some 220kms have been sealed, in six separate stretches. Vehicle numbers are approximately 37 to 124 per day.
The $2m will cover another 4kms. Millions of dollars is also to be spent in the Barkly region. NT lands and planning minister, Gerry McCarthy, said $6.74 million would be allocated for repairs and maintenance across the entire Barkly road network.
It boosts the federal funding for roads in the territory which – among other things – will see three truck parking bays on the Stuart Highway and two truck parking bays on the Barkly Highway, upgraded. $16m will also be be spent strengthening and widening 20km of the Barkly Highway from Avon Downs to the Queensland border.
“Any investment in infrastructure in northern Australia is certainly welcome, and we encourage it to be spent strategically where it adds value and increases the productivity and security of transport in the north,” Troy Setter, the chief operating officer of AA Co, one of the Barkly region’s largest cattle producers, told Beef Central. “However, we would prefer to see the money spent on road infrastructure improvements where we currently have dirt roads that are only open for eight months of the year to open those roads for 12 months of the year, rather than on truck parking bays.”
