‘It’s crazy’: Action on outdated plan key to Kuranda range fix

It is hard to envisage any quick fix for the disastrous Kuranda range when the key document driving Far North infrastructure is more than a decade out of date.

WHILE a federal change may not be a quick fix to the deadly Kuranda range, vital work to update an outdated planning document is key to driving improved Far North infrastructure.

Released last month the $1.6m Cairns to Northern Tablelands Access Strategy recommended no major upgrades would be needed on the Kuranda range before 2051, based on traffic volumes. Last week Transport Minister Mark Bailey pledged to write to Federal Transport Minister Barnaby Joyce and request the Kennedy Highway section between Mareeba and Kuranda be added to the national transport network.

The Minister’s office confirmed the letter was sent on Thursday.

The Barron River bridge on the Kennedy Highway is operating as a single lane, with road traffic controllers operating traffic lights from 9am to 3pm, as RoadTek engineers check the structural integrity of the roadworks carried out last year under the bridge’s girders and pylons. Picture: Brendan Radke

Far North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils chair Michael Kerr said the road had already been listed as Road of Strategic Importance (ROSI) and regardless of whether the link was added to the National Land Transport Network (NLTN) the state was required to do the planning work.

“(But) as a NLTN (the state) can access maintenance funding from the federal government,” he said.

A long awaited state government report into the future of the route has found that no major upgrades or alternatives to the Kuranda Range Road will be needed until 2051. Picture: Brendan Radke

“This wouldn’t be a bad thing when you consider that the region already has a maintenance backlog of $900m.”

The Cairns Post has spearheaded a campaign driving safer and reliable Tablelands access called Fix Our Broken Link.

Mr Kerr said it could be a lengthy wait for the federal government to pull the pin on the new network inclusion based on a five-year timeline to get the Capitan Cook Highway to Smithfield added to the NLTN, but progress can be made in the interim, including an updated regional plan that’s 12-years-old and the oldest in Queensland.

“We absolutely need it, it’s crazy. And it’s not just roads it’s water and housing, it’s everything,” he said.

“This strategy says the road doesn’t reach capacity until 2051. In simple terms it is because of our regional plan.

Crews at the scene of a truck rollover on February 1 on the Kuranda Range. The truck rolled over near the "hairpin" of the Kennedy Hwy, at Macalister Range. Picture: Brendan Radke

“The second step after this is to do a preliminary evaluation to look at and evaluate the options that would meet the service requirements.

“What the federal government possibly will argue though is that the state’s own report says it is not needed. This is more than likely where the next lot of political delays will occur.

“No doubt on top of all this the battle of the environmental concerns will come to full swing.”

Originally published as ‘It’s crazy’: Action on outdated plan key to Kuranda range fix