Tiaro Bypass: Start date revealed for Bruce Hwy upgrade

A surprisingly imminent start date has been revealed for the next massive upgrade of the Bruce Highway north of Gympie, as the 9km project is opened up for comment on its environmental impact.

Work on the long-awaited $336 million Tiaro Bypass is expected to start in February 2025 and be finished less than two years later if the project gets the green light for its environmental controls.

Work on the $336 million Tiaro Bypass north of Gympie could start in just a few months, with February 2025 the mooted start date of what is expected to be a two year project.

The long-awaited potential start time for the project was revealed as part of a federal Environment Department request for public comment on the proposed 9km rerouting of the Bruce Hwy around the Fraser Coast town.

Details of the proposed start and end dates are included in the referral documents lodged by the state’s Transport Department.

The start date of February 2025 has been at the centre of clashes between Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien and state government transport ministers, including Mark Bailey.

TMR’s referral document, dated April 2024, says detailed design for the $336 million project was about 50 per cent complete.

Proposed start and end dates could be delayed by “unforeseen community, political or project funding issues”, bad weather, or delays in the detailed design, it says.

Work on the long-awaited $336 million Tiaro Bypass is expected to start in February 2025 and be finished less than two years later if the project gets the green light under the federal government’s Environment Protection Act. Picture: TMR

Construction will “likely” have a significant impact on environmentally significant species including koalas, yellow-bellied gliders, and greater gliders.

The land where the Bypass is going is about 2km east Tiaro, 18km southwest of Maryborough and 52km north of Gympie.

To date “no koalas or evidence of koalas have been recorded in surveys undertaken... including those undertaken by the University of Sunshine Coast detection dog team” and “there are no recent records (within the last 10 years) within 10km of the study area”.

The significant impact was the loss of habitat that “could be used by the koala in the future”.

The referral is to gain approval for the project under Australia’s Environment Protection Act.

If approved, the bypass would shift thousands of car each day out of Tiaro.

Mitigation measures for the environment were adopted following discussions with environmental groups from May to June 2020, and August to November 2020, the report says.

The referral said a bypass was the best option above an upgrade of the Bruce Hwy for multiple reasons, including safety and flood resilience.

“The Bruce Highway at Tiaro contains three flood zones, variable speed limits (including a 40km/h school zone), a signalised pedestrian crossing, over 50 direct property accesses and intersections and a mix of local and through highway traffic,” it stated.

“Flood related highway closures at Tiaro lead to disruption of freight and passenger traffic.

“These disruptions have a significant impact on the national road transport network and result in the isolation of the Tiaro township during significant flood events.”

The matter is open for public comment on the federal government’s Department of Environment website until Tuesday, July 23.