Inflated Cooroy to Curra arrives on Infrastructure Australia’s wish list
19th December, 2008
The upgrade to the dangerous Coory to Curra section of the Bruce Highway is a welcome inclusion on the Infrastructure Australia ‘wish list’ report to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), Federal Member for Wide Bay Warren Truss said today.“Regrettably the report released today is nothing more than a wish list of 94 projects, costing up to $200 billion. Since there is only $8 billion available to spend it is clear that most of these projects will never be funded,” Mr Truss said.
Even as the project list was being released, it was revealed that there is a second list of just 28 projects, which are considered to be ‘suitable for funding’, divided into two classes. But the Rudd Labor Government has refused to provide details of the projects that are still under consideration.
“The Government must immediately clarify the winners and losers and the Cooroy to Curra road project must be one of the top priority projects,” Mr Truss said.
Mr Truss said he was staggered by the doubling of the cost estimate of the Cooroy to Curra upgrade to $6.3 billion.
“Cost estimates by the Australian Government for the upgrade just over a year ago forecast the project at around $3 billion. How can the cost have blown out so much in that time?” Mr Truss asked.
“The Queensland Government said only two months ago that it would build the most difficult third of the road for $800 million. How could the balance now be estimated at $5.5 billion?
“I am pleased that Infrastructure Australia ignored the advice from the Queensland State Government, which listed the Cooroy to Curra stretch of the Bruce Highway as ‘Funded Substantially (All or Most Stages) Already, No Additional Funding Sought’ in its submission to COAG.”
The RACQ has found that the Bruce Highway, from Cooroy to Curra, is the worst stretch of the national Highway in Queensland, and labelled it a ‘killer highway’.
“The Cooroy to Curra section has tragically taken more than 50 lives since 2000 and there have been many more unnecessary accidents in that time. Our community needs to know now if the Government is going to make a commitment to get the bypass built,” Mr Truss said.
“In the meantime, the Queensland Government should scrap the Traveston Crossing dam to allow work to be undertaken to realign the high accident zone area and make it safer.”
“Everyone who has travelled on the Bruce Highway between Cooroy and Curra knows that the road has reached its capacity and the realignment and bypass are urgently needed. Anyone who is aware of the number of accidents and fatalities on that stretch knows that the Government needs to make a funding commitment and take action now. It is of no comfort at all to have yet another report highlighting the need for the work to be done, but without the funding allocation that is required to make the upgrade happen,” Mr Truss said.
