Bruce Highway safety upgrades can't wait

A recent horror bike crash at the notorious Bells Creek intersection is a tragic reminder that funding to upgrade known Bruce Highway accident black spots must be given urgent priority.  Putting this upgrade on hold is costing lives.

The RACQ has repeatedly found most of the Bruce Highway does not meet recommended safety standards and has estimated 350 people would die and more than 5000 would be injured on the highway over the next 10 years without a sustained, strategic program of safety improvement.

However, the Federal Government made the decision in January to defer funding of $325 million to Queensland road projects to free up funds and skilled workers for the rebuilding of public infrastructure damaged in the floods.  This included a further 2 year delay to the planned $86 million improvements to the Bruce Highway between Caboolture and Caloundra.

While it is understandable that Governments will have to reprioritise programs to meet the challenge of the flood bill, it is vital that the focus is on cutting waste or low priority projects – and not road safety or key economic projects.

The decision to delay the upgrades was made at the same time that a RACQ report revealed the poor state of the Bruce Highway was the leading reason for high crash rates..

With 11 of the 16 worst sections of Queensland's national highways being found on the Bruce Highway, it is a disgrace that work these known accident black spots is being delayed by the Federal Government’s flood budget cuts.

The safety of our the Bruce Highway should be a national priority.  The Bligh Labor Government was complicit in these road funding cuts as they were happy to roll over and let their Labor mates in Canberra roll back our road funding.

They are using the flood bill as an excuse to keep poorly planned and bloated projects such as a the $40 billion National Broadband Network and even the $500 million Traveston Dam pipeline currently under construction through the back of the Sunshine Coast.

The project the State Government has just agreed to delay will mean that dangerous intersections on the Federally funded Bruce Highway between Caboolture and Caloundra stay dangerous. But the NBN is full steam ahead, and a water pipeline which will barely ever carry one tenth of its capacity will be completed.

It is disappointing when there is such a large job to rebuild Queensland’s infrastructure, that still dumb decisions are made which actually make the task harder for everyone.