Upgrades to Bruce and Capricorn highways underway to improve road safety and reduce traffic congestion
June 4, 2012
Major construction works have started between the Bruce and Capricorn highways to improve road safety and reduce traffic congestion in Central Queensland.
Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says the stretch of road on the Bruce Highway at Rockhampton between the Yeppen Roundabout and the Jellicoe Street/Upper Dawson Road intersection will be duplicated.
Albanese says the project, which is expected to be completed by early 2014, will install a slip lane from the Capricorn Highway to the Bruce and erect traffic at the intersection between Jellicoe Street and Upper Dawson Road.
He says safety improvements will also be made at the Port Curtis Road and Ferguson Street intersection.
“After two years of detailed planning, extensive community consultations and preconstruction activities, we’ve pressed the ‘go’ button on a project that represents a major investment in Rockhampton’s future,” Albanese says.
Federal Capricornia MP Kirsten Livermore says the $85 million project will improve traffic flows into and out of the Stanwell industrial corridor, the Port of Gladstone and mining areas to the south and west of Rockhampton.
“As well as delivering faster, less frustrating driving conditions for the 12,000 motorists and truck drivers which use the Yeppen roundabout and bridge every day, the project will also improve safety,” Livermore says.
“Over the five years to 2008, this section of highway has been the scene of 62 crashes, making it the region’s most dangerous stretch of road. Obviously that’s a title no one wants to hold, so we’re fixing it.”
The Federal Government has contributed $68 million to the project, with $17 million coming out of Queensland coffers.
