Highfields bikeway: Toowoomba North MP Trevor Watts calls for project construction to be funded

‘The Sydney Harbour Bridge wouldn’t be particularly useful if they started at one end and started at the other and didn’t meet in the middle.’

Construction of stage 1 of Highfields bikeway was finished in December 2020, but at this stage there is no funding to start building stage 2.

Toowoomba North MP Trevor Watts has slammed the Queensland Government’s lack of funding for the construction of the second stage of the Highfields bikeway.

The first stage of the $13 million bikeway was completed in December 2020 but with the design phase of the second stage expected to be completed in October there currently is no funding allocated for its construction.

With Highfields residents questioning why they’ve been left with a ‘path to nowhere’, Mr Watts said the lack of progress was unacceptable.

“The simple facts are that the state government chose to start the project and now they’ve left it languishing with a missing piece,” he said.

“Could you imagine this government building a bikeway in Brisbane and it went to a dead end, what would the people of Brisbane say? Why do we get the short straw, and why can’t the people of Highfields and Toowoomba get a complete path?

“It doesn’t make sense to start a project like this and not fund its construction fully.”

Mr Watts said he supported the bikeway as a means of giving the residents of Highfields an additional transport option, as well as a place to exercise.

“The reality is the New England Highway is under extreme pressure so it is fantastic to see people with an alternative way to get to work, it just seems odd to start at one end and the other and not connect the bikeway up,” he said.

“The Sydney Harbour Bridge wouldn’t be particularly useful if they started at one end and started at the other and didn’t meet in the middle.”

A Department of Transport and Main Roads spokeswoman said $880,000 was set aside for the design stage 2 of the New England Highway Cycleway, which plans to connect Toowoomba Christian College to Hi Winds Road.

“New infrastructure projects of this size are often funded in three separate phases – planning, design and construction – to ensure there is appropriate scrutiny and assessment before further funding is allocated,” the spokeswoman said.