The Queensland roads in desperate need of upgrades
Six desperately needed Queensland major projects have been added to the national to-do list, including upgrades to killer highways, congestion-busting improvements for Brisbane’s north and a road so choked it is rated as suffering traffic overload on a national scale.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Six desperately needed Queensland major projects have been added to the national to-do list, including upgrades to killer regional highways, congestion-busting improvements for Brisbane’s northern suburbs and a Sunshine Coast road so choked it is rated as suffering traffic overload on a national scale.
Along with removing highway black spots – 65 per cent of Queensland’s road fatalities occurred outside major cities, Infrastructure Australia has added the Brisbane northern suburbs corridor, the Browns Plains to South East Busway initiative, improving the Queensland inland freight route, and increasing capacity and safety on the Browns Plains to Beaudesert and the Mooloolah River interchange on the Sunshine Coast.
The faces of Queensland’s road toll terror
Kyle Pollard: How a car crash 16 years ago still shatters me
QLD road toll: Investigator's plea after rise in fatals amid pandemic
Infrastructure Australia will release the full report today, for the first time updating it half way through the year as it tries to fast track big projects to create jobs and get the COVID economy moving.
Infrastructure Australia chief executive officer Romilly Madew, said the Priority List had been updated in order to showcase the extended pipeline of investment, now worth more than $64 billion.
“The Priority List is a critical tool in recovery, as it directs investment to the infrastructure projects that will kickstart economic growth and have the greatest returns for all Australians,” she said.
Of the 245 lives lost on Queensland roads in 2018, over 65 per cent of the crashes occurred in areas outside of the major cities, it says.
The killer sections of narrow country highways make up just 3 per cent of the state-controlled road network by length but carry 20 per cent of vehicle kilometres travelled and 15 per cent of ‘fatal and serious injury’ crashes.
Options to make them safer include wider centre-lines, centre barriers and increasing shoulder widths and noisy line markings.
In Brisbane’s north, the 60kmh and 70kmh Gympie Arterial Road crawls along at 36kmh in the morning peak and 32kmh in the evening peak and will only get worse without smarter intersections and better public transport, the report warns.
Remaining on the previous list, it says the M1 Motorway is one of the busiest roads in Australia. It already carries 150,000 vehicles a day, which the section between Eight Mile Plains and Tugun cannot handle.
As well as the Queensland initiatives, other new priorities were the Perth Metronet train system, the M12 Motorway in Sydney and also redeveloping the ageing Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.