Article: Super highway to connect Cairns to Melbourne

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Super highway to connect Cairns to Melbourne

Super highway to connect Cairns to Melbourne
Article from: The Courier-Mail

By Michael Madigan

May 16, 2009 12:00am

A SUPER highway from Cairns to Melbourne is still on the Federal Government agenda as it begins work fixing one of Australia's most deadly stretches of road north of Brisbane.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joined Treasurer Wayne Swan and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday on the Sunshine Coast to formally announce the $613 million Budget commitment to fix the Bruce Highway between Cooroy and Curra.

Mr Rudd said his government was moved by both safety concerns and the demands of a modern economy when it came to road-building. But, he said, the Government remained determined the nation would have a safe, world-class super highway stretching south to north and through major centres.

"We are committed to a new M1, a national road network from Melbourne through Sydney through Brisbane through to Cairns," he said.

"Because that is the sort of road infrastructure we need for the future.

"This has to be done one building block at a time and what we are looking at here today is a building block."

The Federal Budget has allowed $2.6 billion for upgrading the Bruce Highway between Brisbane and Cairns over the next five years. More than $3 billion will be spent on the Pacific Highway between Sydney and Brisbane with more than 70 per cent of the road to be duplicated.

Work on the $613 million project between Sankeys Rd and Traveston Rd will begin in August and be completed by 2012.

"This is a critical piece of infrastructure," Mr Albanese said. "Not just for the job-creation that will occur in the short term but for the long-term benefit of the nation."

Sigh ...  it is going to be a long war ...

[Dean Quick]

What about the Melbourne to Brisbane/Gladstone railway??? Has this project fallen off the political radar? The trucking industry already has the ability to thunder down our highways between capitals overnight, whilst the adjacent rail lines are still caught in a 19th century time warp. I am growing very tired of seeing my taxes spent on improving roads to accommodate the already heavily subsidised road trucking industry. Will someone in the Govt please wake up!!!

[O_128]

yet long terem the government could save billions and cut down on emissions by building a dual track freight line which is electrified . this would get trucks off the road as well