‘Not good enough’: TMR slammed on 25-year wait for highway fix
Touted as a gridlock fix linking the northern beaches to the city, a recently revealed 25-year timeline to complete highway upgrades north of the Barron River has been slammed as “laughable.”
Cairns
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Touted as a congestion-busting link between the northern beaches and the city, a recently revealed 25-year timeline to complete highway upgrades north of the Barron River has been slammed as “laughable” by peak advocacy group Advance Cairns.
Following the inclusion of the Captain Cook Highway in the national road network in 2019 the federal government committed $287.2m in an 80:20 split with the state which combined to make $359m available for the upgrade.
The project aims to slash commute times into the city primarily by increasing capacity to six lanes between Florence St and Aeroglen Dr during stage one.
Stage one master planning is expected to be finalised by mid to late 2023 but concern has been raised by Advance Cairns executive chairman Nick Trompf in regard to the section between the Barron River and the Smithfield roundabout on a slow track to completion.
“A 25 year timeline is completely unrealistic and the people of the northern beaches will attest to that,” he said.
“Traffic is already at gridlock from the northern beaches and in 25 years cars will be backed up all the way (from the CBD) to the Smithfield roundabout.”
Comparing the project to the near complete Edmonton to Gordonvale Bruce Highway upgrade that delivered a 10.5km upgrade in roughly three years, Mr Trompf noted the northern route was marginally longer and more complicated but waiting a lifetime for better city access was unrealistic.
“The other key point is the federal money was promised two elections ago and the reality is (the upgrade) has been bogged down due to the sheer amount of work that Transport and Main Roads has undertaken,” he said.
“The reality is the $359m won’t be nearly enough to complete the project.”
Revealed by the Cairns Post last year, highly toxic subterranean fire retardant foam at the site of an old firefighting depot adjacent to the airport has been blamed for a budget blowout on the project that will only finance a 5km Cairns section between James St and the Barron River bridge. However TMR has consistently declined to provide details of the contamination and how PFAS 200m from the roadway will impact planned upgrades.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch suggested a 25 year timeline on completion was “not good enough”.
“We have a chronic problem to the north. The Smithfield bypass, while it is working, really only transfers the problem somewhere else,” he said.
“We are decades behind in the planning and for them to suggest that we have to wait another 25 years is ridiculous.
“We should be talking of a five year plan not a 25 year plan.”
Consultation on the upgrade remains open until February 28 2023.
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Originally published as ‘Not good enough’: TMR slammed on 25-year wait for highway fix
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