Our highway vulnerability

THE closure of two vital road links between Cairns and the Tablelands yesterday ground commerce, tourism and transportation to a halt.

Crashes in wet weather forced the shutdown of the Kuranda and Gillies range roads, both critical land routes between the region’s main city and rural and tourism communities.

It has reignited debate about an alternative route between the two areas with detour routes south on the Palmerston Highway or north on the Rex Range adding hours to journeys.

The Kennedy Highway between Smithfield and Kuranda was closed for 10 hours while the Gillies Range road was shut down for three hours. Both crashes involved trucks. A tunnel on the Kuranda Range, costed at about $1 billion, is simply not economically viable.

Four laning the Kuranda Range can be done, as well, but it is costly and will take years.

A possible alternative discussed over the years is a new route south of the Kennedy Highway between Kuranda and Mareeba linked to the Lake Morris Rd down to Kanimbla.

Of course, there is improving and gazetting the privately-owned Quaid Rd between Wangetti and Lake Mitchell north of Mareeba.

The issue of the Kuranda Range road has been ongoing for decades, but the State Government has never provided a solution because of the cost and the fact that the Cairns region has a such smaller residential, taxpayer and voting population than the mighty southeast. Nick Dalton nick.dalton@news.com.au