Bruce Highway upgrades set to boost safety for Whitsunday Region

The Bruce Highway Cairns Southern Access Corridor. Image courtesy of QLD Gov.

Safety upgrade works for the Bruce Highway project are now underway between Ten Mile Creek at Proserpine and Yeates Creek at Bowen in the Whitsunday Region.

The $44 million upgrades, being delivered by BMD Construction, will deliver safety improvements to nearly 13 kilometres of Bruce Highway between Ten Mile Creek and Yeates Creek.

The project will widen the highway to install wide centre-line treatments, reducing the potential for head-on collisions.

The $44 million package of safety works is being funded on an 80:20 basis by the Australian and Queensland governments, as part of the $13 billion, 15-year Bruce Highway Upgrade Program (BHUP) in progress since 2013.

Bruce Highway is Queensland’s major north-south freight and commuter corridor, connecting coastal population centres from Brisbane to Cairns over a length of 1,677 kilometres.

Queensland Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the Whitsunday Region project was one of many being delivered between Cairns and Caboolture.

“We’re making excellent progress on the pipeline of projects up and down the Bruce Highway, with 154 projects in delivery, including 48 under construction right now,” Bailey said.

“That pipeline gives local workers and businesses certainty that funding will continue to flow into their local economies and is an important part of Queensland’s Covid-19 Economic Recovery Plan.”

Queensland Assistant Regional Roads Minister Bruce Saunders said the investment will provide an economic boost for the region.

“The safety projects are funded under the Palaszczuk Government’s record $27.5 billion roads and transport investment over four years, which is creating 24,000 jobs, and helping to drive Queensland’s economic recovery,” Saunders said.

“This investment includes $1.14 billion allocated specifically to the Mackay/Whitsunday District, estimated to support around 1,060 direct jobs.

Some of the key projects being delivered across the Mackay/Whitsunday District include the $120 million Mackay Northern Access Upgrade, $39 million Bruce Highway safety upgrade between Mackay and Proserpine, and $37 million Proserpine-Shute Harbour Road duplication and intersection upgrades.

All three upgrades will be jointly funded on an 80:20 basis between the state and federal governments.