Funding targets regional blackspots
LONG waited upgrades in some of regional Australia's most notorious highway crash zones could take up three quarters of the national roads spend.
Most significantly, the $3.56 billion injection into the Nation Building Program would cover the cost of the Pacific Hwy duplication should the NSW Government match federal funding.
In the next 12 months work is expected to begin on problem stretches of the highway including Nambucca to Urunga just south of Coffs Harbour and Banora Point near Tweed Heads.
Finishing touches on further upgrades throughout northern NSW are likely to cost about $7.1 billion.
In QLD, the near complete duplication of the deadly stretch of Bruce Hwy between Cooroy and Curra will get a $388 million boost.
The allocation of $1.8 billion to the Ipswich Motorway project has brought the expected finish date forward to early next year.
Further north, straightening of the Bruce Hwy south of Gin Gin and the upgrade of the intersection with the
Bundaberg-Gin Gin Rd has been given a $20 million head start.
The $150 million Calliope Crossroads project in Gladstone will go ahead as promised.
