DriveIt NQ training pad complete, stage 2 construction to being in 2021

DriveIt NQ has reached its first major construction milestone with the installation of the driver training pad.

DRIVEIT NQ has reached its first major construction milestone with the installation of the driver training pad.

An ecstatic Pat Driscoll wasted no time in getting behind the wheel to test it out, practising his evasive driving on the purpose-built slab, which is the first of its kind in North Queensland.

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Mr Driscoll said the driving pad, which is the largest of its kind in Australia, would be used by commercial operators, police and emergency services with the next group of Queensland Police Service graduates to do their driver training on the slab in February.

“There are seven operators that have signed up to use it already and we haven’t really even advertised it,” Mr Driscoll said.

Pat Driscoll at the opening of the pad at DriveIt NQ.

The next stage of the process will be a track and a drag strip, with work expected to start after the wet season is over.

Nationals senator Susan McDonald said this was a groundbreaking moment, with North Queensland having a facility that was on par or even better than the rest of the state.

The federal government has committed a total of $12m for stages one and two of DriveIt NQ.

The state government had committed $10m towards the final stage of the project.

Originally published as DriveIt NQ training pad complete, stage 2 construction to being in 2021