Prioritise us: Plan to fix the Bruce Highway
Economist: ‘we are essentially begin treated as second class citizens’
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A QUEENSLAND economist has questioned why the State Government would spend $250 million on a public service bonus and $7 billion on the Cross River Rail when conditions on the Bruce Highway north of Rockhampton were so poor.
Colin Dwyer, who spends considerable hours traversing the Bruce Highway for work and personal reasons, believes the stretch north of Maryborough is the worst in the country.
He said he had surveyed the condition of the road while twice travelling between Townsville and Brisbane in the past four months.
"One of the big things that we found was that the safety of the Bruce Highway was just atrocious," he said.
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While the road from Gympie is a duel-lane highway, people travelling in northern parts of the state are so close to traffic moving in the opposite direction, their cars shake as they pass by.
"(The road) becomes ineffective just about every wet season," he said.
"We have cyclones and we have floods and it cuts the Bruce Highway. We know, whether you live in Mackay, Rockhampton, Townsville or Cairns that within a week all the food on the shelves (is) just about gone."
Mr Dwyer also said the number of overtaking lanes in the northern section of the highway was disproportionate to those in the south.
"We counted 29 overtaking lanes from Townsville to Rockhampton and 50 overtaking lanes from Rockhampton to Gympie
"That is about 750km with 50 overtaking lanes … north of Rockhampton there is double the distance and half the overtaking lanes. That is a massive safety issue," he said.
Mr Dwyer said the area from Homehill to Bowen was of particular concern with "no overtaking lanes for a considerable distance on the highway".
"It is absolutely an essential piece of infrastructure for the people of the north," he said.
"If we don't have the same quality as the people of the south, we are essentially begin treated as second class citizens."
Mr Dwyer said projects like the Mackay Ring Road and Haughton River Floodplain would make particular sections of the road safer, but said it did not address the other concerns including overtaking lanes and the distance between cars at some stretches.
He proposed a diversion of funds from the public service bonus and Cross River Rain project to invest to make the road safer north of Rockhampton.
"If they put that money into the roads up north they would have fewer funerals than they were having at the moment," he said.
"Why would you put $250 million into Queensland public servant's pockets when you've got people dying on roads in North Queensland."
Minister of Transport and Main Mark Bailey said the Federal and State Governments would invest $12.6 billion to the Bruce Highway Upgrade Program in the next decade.
"Some of the largest road upgrades happening in Queensland right now are on the Bruce Highway between Rocky and Townsville," Mr Bailey said.
Originally published as Prioritise us: Plan to fix the Bruce Highway