Federal Labor pledges to fund bulk of Bruce Highway upgrade in re-election bid

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Albanese government is promising to fund upgrades to the Bruce Highway in Queensland, as the 2025 federal election looms. Transport Minister Catherine King says the investment will be significant.

Transcript

00:00Today we're announcing the single biggest ever investment from a Labor government into

00:08the Bruce Highway, $7.2 billion in addition to the money that is already being invested

00:13in the Bruce Highway, some $10 billion, to really get this road up to a three star rating.

00:18At the moment there are sections of this road that remain at one and two star rating and

00:23that's the rating we use to say how safe is this road.

00:26So we know when you have grade separation, when you have barriers, when you take out

00:32some of the dangerous curves, that really does reduce the road safety risk of a road

00:37and there are sections of this road, particularly up around the Mackay end that are really still

00:42at one star and we have seen over 40 people last year lost their lives and the increase

00:47in the number of people who've lost their lives in serious injury on the Bruce Highway

00:52and this investment will go to really lifting the road safety improvement and the productivity

00:57of what is the single biggest artery right the way through Queensland.

01:01You get the biggest single road safety improvements when you increase the road from one to three

01:06stars so what that means is you're putting in a wider centre section, you're putting

01:12in shoulder sealing, you can put in more overtaking lanes so that when you do get people who are

01:17trying to overtake, you've got slower vehicles, they're not doing that in a risky way and

01:22you put more road safety barriers and so the biggest single improvement you do get in road

01:27safety is from that one to three, you do get some road safety improvement when you lift

01:33from three to four but really lifting a one star road to a three star road is what we're

01:38concentrating on.

01:39Of course there will always be more to be done but this is the single biggest contribution

01:43of any government to fixing the Bruce Highway and getting this done once and for all.

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