Upgrading the Cooroy to Curra Highway
12th March, 2009
Comments by Queensland Roads Minister, Warren Pitt, that work could start on the upgrading of the Cooroy to Curra stretch of the Bruce Highway almost immediately if Federal funding is approved have been described by the Federal Member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss, as a misleading hoax.Speaking in Federal Parliament this week, Mr Truss dismissed Mr Pitt’s comments as “a dishonest pre-election stunt”.
Mr Truss said Mr Pitt knew “that the Rudd Labor Government has slashed AusLink funding for this road to just $200 million - and that has to last until 2014. To go to the people of Gympie who desperately want this road constructed and say to them that all that is required is approval from the Federal Government when he knows that the new Federal Government has slashed the available money for this project is simply dishonest and deceitful”.
Mr Truss said that Mr Pitt - who is not even contesting the next election - is raising false hope that AusLink funding may soon be available to start on the Cooroy to Curra project. What Mr Pitt also did not say is that the project can only begin “almost immediately” if it is built on a route around the edge of the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam. This is the only route on which the Queensland Government has undertaken any pre-commencement works.
The public however want the road to follow more closely to the existing road alignment. The Queensland Government has been so blinded by its determination to build the Traveston Crossing Dam that no planning has been done on this preferred route.
Mr Truss told Federal Parliament that “since 2000, 54 people have been killed on this road and there have been 4 fatal accidents since the Government lowered the speed limit on this section of the national highway to 90 km/h just before Christmas.
“This road is a killing field,” Mr Truss said. “Accidents are reported almost every week. There are horrific accidents. It is unthinkable that any Government should cut funding for the upgrading and improvement of this road.”
“I appeal to the Rudd Labor Government to put aside the politics and do something about upgrading this road and do it promptly.
“It will require a lot of money but the $700 million that the previous Government had allocated and was available would make a good start,” Mr Truss said.
