(Road) Article: Toowoomba bypass plan looks dead and buried

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Brisbane Times: Toowoomba bypass plan looks dead and buried

Further coverage in The Toowoomba Chronicle

The proposed Toowoomba bypass is unlikely to go ahead after a federal government report described it as "commercially unattractive".

The project has been a political football for 18 years and now seems dead and buried, The Toowoomba Chronicle, which obtained the document under Freedom of Information, reports.

The 234-page government document into the Toowoomba Bypass Project, now made available after being reclassified, says that the project is "commercially unattractive to government" and irrespective of the model used does not represent "value for money".
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The Toowoomba Bypass Steering Committee compiled the detailed report for the Department of Infrastructure and Transport in 2009 and concluded that the even though the current range crossing "is of low standard" and "falls well short of specified national highway levels of service" the project would not proceed any further due to the magnitude of upfront government contribution required.

With the capital cost of the project estimated at $1.75 billion, the report states that for each year the project is deferred that figure would escalate by a further $100 million.