Highway work gets started

Arthur Gorrie | 3rd July 2009

WORK began this week on two major Bruce Highway projects - the next stage of the through-Gympie upgrade and the first stage of the Cooroy-to-Curra by-pass.

Excavation gets underway on the next stage of the Bruce Highway's through-Gympie upgrade.

Renee Pilcher

EARLY work began in earnest this week on two major Bruce Highway projects - the next stage of the through-Gympie upgrade and the first stage of the Cooroy-to-Curra by-pass.

The felling of two bunya pines marked the start of work on Stage Three of the highway upgrade through town, extending the widened roadway from Channon Street to Pine Street, with major intersection improvements along the way.

Preparatory site work on the Cooroy-to-Curra stretch started on Monday, with those jobs expected to be complete in time for a start on major earthworks and construction.

The 12km section from Sankeys Road and Traveston Road will cost an estimated $488 million in Commonwealth money.

Main Roads Minister Craig Wallace told Parliament recently that the 64km from Cooroy to Curra had seen 56 road deaths in nine years.

On top of that, 295 people have been hospitalised with injuries from 840 crashes between 2000 and 2008. Mr Wallace was responding to a question on notice from Gympie MP and Opposition Infrastructure spokesperson, David Gibson, who acknowledged that both sides of politics, at state and federal levels, had ignored for too long the safety problems of “the worst stretch of highway in Australia”.

Mr Wallace said the government had prioritised work on the highway section which had cost 15 of the 56 deaths.

“I will continue to press for additional funding to ensure construction progresses on the remaining sections,” he said.