Bruce Highway dual lane upgrade from Cairns to Gympie cost estimated as $20bn

A North Queensland economist says planned upgrades to the Bruce Hwy need to happen at least three times faster while revealing the cost of a separated dual-lane carriageway from Cairns to Gympie.

A North Queensland economist has estimated it will cost at least $20bn to bring the national highway between Cairns and Gympie to a five-star rating in line other regional parts of the country.

Northern Bruce Action Group members Colin Dwyer and Tracy Cheffins surveyed 1600km of the highway from Cairns to Pine Rivers in July with a focus on overtaking lanes and narrow bridges impacting safety.

The survey found the five worst sections for lack of overtaking lanes per 100km and the five worst sections for number of narrow bridges per 100km were north of Gladstone.

“Nine of the worst 11 sections of the Bruce Hwy for fatal and serious injury crashes are above Gladstone,” Mr Dwyer said.

Police at the scene of a two-vehicle crash on the Bruce Hwy at Fitzgerald Creek, five minutes north of Innisfail. The highway was blocked from the north near Jubilee Rd on Friday August 9, 2024. Picture: Arun Singh Mann

He said on the “five-star” rated section of the highway in the south east the FSI rate – number of crashes per million kilometres, per vehicle was 1.4, however between Cairns and Townsville it was six times worse.

Mr Dwyer in the short-term, the highway needed an urgent “saturation” of overtaking lanes and a fast-track of narrow bridge replacements and expansions.

“When we drove the highway, there were no overtaking lane or bridge projects under construction north of Gladstone,” he said.

“Currently in the (Queensland Government’s) 15-year Bruce Hwy plan there are just 13 new overtaking lane projects (identified) north of Rockhampton. Three are planned for delivery in 10 years and 10 are planned for 15 years.

The Bruce Highway is the deadliest road in Queensland, with statistics showing more fatal crashes on the road than any other in the state. The Bruce Highway is majority single lane, with narrow shoulders and causeways at Aloomba, only 30 kilometres south from the city of Cairns. Picture: Brendan Radke

“There 20 narrow bridge projects in that plan, 15 of those are between Innisfail and Ayr.”

Mr Dwyer said those projects slated for 10 and 15 years’ time needed to be fast-tracked over the next five.

“We have to take note of all the construction and spending competition that’s now going be occurring with the Olympics as well,” he said.

“So we want to see these safety projects given priority over projects that are related to an event in Brisbane that is for fun. This is a safety issue for North Queensland.”

Northern Bruce Action Group members Colin Dwyer and Tracy Cheffins took their report to Queensland Parliament to discuss with state leaders, including Member for Burdekin Dale Last and Opposition spokesman for transport and main roads Steve Minnikin.

For a long-term fix, Mr Dwyer said the highway north of Gympie needed to upgraded to a dual-lane separated carriageway.

He said an inflation-adjusted study from 2018 estimated the cost of a separated dual-lane highway from Cairns to Gympie to be $66bn if built from scratch.

“But if you look at the highway, and think parts of it are competent, and we just need to put in another two lanes – that halves your cost. But then some parts might have low traffic, so you put in a two-plus-one (overtaking lane) split – that takes the cost down to $20bn.

“There’s more than 1 million people north of Gladstone who drive and depend on the Bruce. “That’s 18.3 per cent of Queenslanders who contribute 31.7 per cent of the state economy depending on a comparatively dangerous two star road.”

Originally published as Bruce Highway dual lane upgrade from Cairns to Gympie cost estimated as $20bn